SSP Environmental Health & Safety 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120 (HAZWOPER), employees performing emergency response to hazardous substance releases must complete how many hours of initial training for the 'first responder operations' level?
- 4 hours
- 8 hours (Correct answer)
- 24 hours
- 40 hours
Correct answer: 8 hours
HAZWOPER requires first responders at the operations level to complete a minimum of 8 hours of training before responding to hazardous substance incidents defensively.
Question 2: Which air pollutant is most commonly used as an indicator for overall air quality in the EPA's Air Quality Index (AQI)?
- Carbon monoxide
- Sulfur dioxide
- Ground-level ozone (Correct answer)
- Hydrogen sulfide
Correct answer: Ground-level ozone
Ground-level ozone is one of the six criteria pollutants tracked by the AQI and is among the most common indicators of poor urban air quality.
Question 3: A confined space is classified as 'permit-required' under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.146 if it:
- Has an opening larger than 18 inches in diameter
- Contains or has the potential to contain a serious safety or health hazard (Correct answer)
- Requires a ladder for entry
- Has been entered by an employee in the last 12 months
Correct answer: Contains or has the potential to contain a serious safety or health hazard
A permit-required confined space contains or has potential to contain a serious hazard such as a hazardous atmosphere, engulfment potential, converging walls, or other recognized serious safety or health hazard.
Question 4: Which of the following best describes the purpose of a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA)?
- Document worker compensation claims for a specific task
- Identify hazards associated with each step of a job and determine controls (Correct answer)
- Establish the minimum staffing ratio for a work crew
- Assess the ergonomic design of office workstations
Correct answer: Identify hazards associated with each step of a job and determine controls
A JHA breaks a job into individual steps, identifies potential hazards at each step, and recommends controls to eliminate or reduce risk.
Question 5: Under EPA's Clean Water Act, which permit program regulates point source discharges of pollutants into waters of the United States?
- RCRA
- NPDES (Correct answer)
- SPCC
- TSCA
Correct answer: NPDES
The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulates point source discharges of pollutants to US waters under the Clean Water Act.
Question 6: Which ionizing radiation type has the greatest penetrating power but the lowest ionizing power?
- Alpha particles
- Beta particles
- Gamma rays (Correct answer)
- Neutron radiation
Correct answer: Gamma rays
Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation with the greatest penetrating ability, requiring dense shielding such as lead or concrete, but they ionize less densely per unit path than alpha or beta particles.
Question 7: The threshold limit value – ceiling (TLV-C) set by ACGIH represents a concentration that:
- Should never be exceeded at any time during the workday (Correct answer)
- Should not be exceeded on average over an 8-hour shift
- May be exceeded briefly if the 8-hour TWA is below the TLV-TWA
- Applies only to carcinogenic substances
Correct answer: Should never be exceeded at any time during the workday
The TLV-C is an instantaneous ceiling value that must not be exceeded at any moment during the work shift, regardless of duration.
SSP Environmental Health & Safety 3
Under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120 (HAZWOPER), employees performing emergency response to hazardous substance releases must complete how many hours of initial training for the 'first responder operations' level?