Chesapeake Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers

November 2007 "Test Your Knowledge" Questions and Answers

Compare your answers with our expert. Pete’s helpful explanation is given below each question.

1. How long should a company keep records of its products being produced?

(a) Life of the product warranty.
(b) Seven years after customer actually receives product.
(c) As recommended by company legal counsel.
(d) Well beyond the intended use of the product.
(e) Forever or until the Consumer Product Safety Commission conducts a recall.

Explanation: Potential Products liability cases have no real statute of limitations in terms of being sued, e.g. for injuries sustained from product defects etc. Hence, it would be prudent to keep records (e.g. product development, operating instructions, design drawings, labels, warnings and warrantee records, etc.) from “cradle to grave” of the foreseeable life of the product

2. The OSHA General Duty Clause can be cited when all of the following conditions are in place, except:

(a) The hazard is recognized by the industry in which it represents.
(b) There are “feasible” abatement methods to correct the hazards.
(c) The hazard is recognized by most health and safety professionals.
(d) Employees are exposed to a hazard that could cause serious harm.
(e) There is no applicable OSHA Standard.

Explanation: Tricky question -- note the word “except”. Safety and Health professionals, although helpful in cases, are not in “the mix” of this legal resolution.

3. Using a standard sound level meter, a reading of 102 dba is recorded at 20 feet. Under normal (freeform space) conditions, how far away from the noise source must the next reading be taken to achieve a reading of 90 dba?

(a) 40 feet
(b) 60 feet
(c) 70 feet
(d) 80 feet
(e) 85 feet

Explanation: This can be done precisely by noise logarithm equation, but a “quick and dirty” method is using the double the distance, minus 6 rule. Hence, you double the distance (20ft to 40ft) from the noise source, you get 102dbA minus 6 = 96dbA. However, still not down to 90dbA, so you must double the distance again (40 x 2 = 80 ft), which allows you to subtract 6 from the previous number 96dbA (96 minus 6), which equals 90dbA.

Of course, the caveat here is assuming the noise prorogation route is in “free form space”, e.g., no obstacles, barriers in the direction to noise travel (and place of measurement), surrounding metal objects which could reflecting/reverberating the noise, etc.

November 2007 "Test Your Knowledge" Questions and Answers

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