Fundamentals of Occupational Safety and Health

1. You are the safety manager of a company that just experienced a fatal accident involving a warehouse crane. Describe the steps you need to take in order to be in compliance with OSHA reporting requirements. Include timeframes and forms as appropriate. 2. What do the acronyms SARA, CERCLA, and RCRA represent? How do the three fit together, and how do they relate to OSHA? Be specific, and provide some examples in your response. 3. Provide an example of a job that could have a high incidence of workplace musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). Identify two engineering controls and two administrative controls that could be used in this job to reduce the risk of WMSDs. 4. Describe the effects of common industrial air contaminants on the human body and methods used to quantify employee workplace exposures. 5. Distinguish between measures of exposure, including time-weighted-averages (TWAs), ceiling levels, and short-term exposure limits (STELs). 6. Describe the relationship between safety and health standards and the established system of building codes. 7. Explain OSHA requirements for administrative controls, hearing protection and hearing testing, and conservation programs 8. Explain the problems of selection of personal protective equipment and the comprehensive requirements that must be met to protect employees from hazardous conditions. 9. Discuss the comparative advantages and disadvantages of using a vacuum cleaner to exhaust toxic air contaminants by placing the hose intake close to the source of the contaminant. 10. Discuss the procedures you would establish in order to conduct arc welding in a permit-required confined space. Be specific, and provide examples in your response. 11. Explain the complexities and difficulties in enforcing standards for lifting. Use specific examples to support your answer. 12. Give specific examples of six types of machine guarding, and discuss the safety control measures associated with them. 13. You are on the design team for building an overhead bridge crane for use in-house within the company. The design team is considering a proposal to place a switch box on the wall with toggle on/off switches for control of the bridge, trolley, and hoist, respectively. What would be your design input to this committee? Explain the rationale behind your recommendations. 14. At least four general characteristics of materials handling contribute to its intrinsic hazard potential. Name and explain four such characteristics. Provide some examples of each. 15. A welder has constructed a manifold arrangement for an assortment of oxygen and acetylene cylinders stored together lying on the floor. The manifold pressurizes the gaseous acetylene and depressurizes the oxygen to 50-psig for both. The room smells strongly of nail-polish remover. The welder is wearing greasy gloves and is chipping welding slag from the weld using his torch tip. The welding torch is connected to the manifold by two flexible hoses that are carefully wrapped together with duct tape, completely covering the hoses. Describe and discuss all of the safety hazards described in this setting (after, of course, you have exited the room for your own safety!).

16. Discuss the reasons why fall prevention and protection is more difficult on a construction site than
in a fixed manufacturing plant. In your response, include examples of where fall protection might be required on a construction site and what specific type of measures would be needed to ensure worker safety.