December 2010

Examiners’ Report
NEBOSH Diploma in
Environmental
Management
Examiners’ Report
NEBOSH LEVEL 6 DIPLOMA IN
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
DECEMBER 2010

CONTENTS

Introduction 2

General comments 3

Comments on individual questions 4

 2011 NEBOSH, Dominus Way, Meridian Business Park, Leicester LE19 1QW
tel: 0116 263 4700 fax: 0116 282 4000 email: info@nebosh.org.uk website: www.nebosh.org.uk

The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health is a registered charity, number 1010444

T(s):exrpts/E/ED-yymm EXTERNAL SS/DA/REW

 Introduction
Introduction

NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) was formed in 1979 as
an independent examining board and awarding body with charitable status. We offer a
comprehensive range of globally-recognised, vocationally-related qualifications designed to meet the
health, safety, environmental and risk management needs of all places of work in both the private and
public sectors.
Courses leading to NEBOSH qualifications attract over 25,000 candidates annually and are offered by
over 400 course providers in 65 countries around the world. Our qualifications are recognised by the
relevant professional membership bodies including the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health
(IOSH) and the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM).

NEBOSH is an awarding body recognised and regulated by the UK regulatory authorities:

 The Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual) in England

 The Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) in Wales
 The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) in Northern Ireland
 The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) in Scotland

NEBOSH follows the “GCSE, GCE, VCE, GNVQ and AEA Code of Practice 2007/8” published by the
regulatory authorities in relation to examination setting and marking (available at the Ofqual website
www.ofqual.gov.uk). While not obliged to adhere to this code, NEBOSH regards it as best practice to
do so.

Candidates’ scripts are marked by a team of Examiners appointed by NEBOSH on the basis of their
qualifications and experience. The standard of the qualification is determined by NEBOSH, which is
overseen by the NEBOSH Council comprising nominees from, amongst others, the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE), the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and
the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Representatives of course providers, from
both the public and private sectors, are elected to the NEBOSH Council.

This report on the Examination provides information on the performance of candidates which it is
hoped will be useful to candidates and tutors in preparation for future examinations. It is intended to
be constructive and informative and to promote better understanding of the syllabus content and the
application of assessment criteria.

© NEBOSH 2010

Any enquiries about this report publication should be addressed to:

NEBOSH
Dominus Way
Meridian Business Park
Leicester
LE10 1QW

Tel: 0116 263 4700

Fax: 0116 282 4000
Email: info@nebosh.org.uk

2 EXTERNAL
 General comments

Many candidates are well prepared for this unit assessment and provide comprehensive and relevant
answers in response to the demands of the question paper. This includes the ability to demonstrate
understanding of knowledge by applying it to workplace situations.

There are always some candidates, however, who appear to be unprepared for the unit assessment
and who show both a lack of knowledge of the syllabus content and a lack of understanding of how
key concepts should be applied to workplace situations.

In order to meet the pass standard for this assessment, acquisition of knowledge and understanding
across the syllabus are prerequisites. However, candidates need to demonstrate their knowledge and
understanding in answering the questions set. Referral of candidates in this unit is invariably because
they are unable to write a full, well-informed answer to one or more of the questions asked.

Some candidates find it difficult to relate their learning to the questions and as a result offer responses
reliant on recalled knowledge and conjecture and fail to demonstrate a sufficient degree of
understanding. Candidates should prepare themselves for this vocational examination by ensuring
their understanding, not rote-learning pre-prepared answers.

Common pitfalls

It is recognised that many candidates are well prepared for their assessments. However, recurrent
issues, as outlined below, continue to prevent some candidates reaching their full potential in the
assessment.

 Many candidates fail to apply the basic principles of examination technique and for some
candidates this means the difference between a pass and a referral.

 In some instances, candidates are failing because they do not attempt all the required
questions or are failing to provide complete answers. Candidates are advised to always
attempt an answer to a compulsory question, even when the mind goes blank. Applying basic
health and safety management principles can generate credit worthy points.

 Some candidates fail to answer the question set and instead provide information that may be
relevant to the topic but is irrelevant to the question and cannot therefore be awarded marks.

 Many candidates fail to apply the command words (also known as action verbs, eg describe,
outline, etc). Command words are the instructions that guide the candidate on the depth of
answer required. If, for instance, a question asks the candidate to ‘describe’ something, then
few marks will be awarded to an answer that is an outline.

 Some candidates fail to separate their answers into the different sub-sections of the
questions. These candidates could gain marks for the different sections if they clearly
indicated which part of the question they were answering (by using the numbering from the
question in their answer, for example). Structuring their answers to address the different parts
of the question can also help in logically drawing out the points to be made in response.

 Candidates need to plan their time effectively. Some candidates fail to make good use of their
time and give excessive detail in some answers leaving insufficient time to address all of the
questions.

 Candidates should also be aware that Examiners cannot award marks if handwriting is
illegible.

3 EXTERNAL
 Examination paper – five from eight questions to be attempted

Question 1 A manufacturing company intends to include environmental awareness

issues in the company’s induction training programme.

(a) Outline the environmental content that should be included in the

induction training programme. (12)

(b) Describe ways in which all employees might be encouraged to

adhere to the company’s environmental procedures. (8)

This proved to be a popular question, perhaps unsurprisingly given the fact that many
organisations are now including environmental matter in induction programmes.

Part (a) gave candidates an opportunity to demonstrate their awareness of the types of
issues that would be relevant at an induction level, such as; company policies and
commitments; important environmental issues affecting the organisation; specific aspects
and impacts arising from relevant activities; specific legal requirements; benefits arising
from high standards of environmental management; relevant company procedures;
possible disciplinary sanctions for failing to follow procedures; organisational reporting and
responsibilities; and reference to any key accreditations, such as ISO14001. Most
candidates performed well on this part and many candidates recognised the need to
discuss company policy and commitment, but many missed obvious points, such as
relevant company procedures.

Part (b) answers were generally of a good standard. Better answers made reference to:
demonstrating top-level commitment and leading by example; making sure procedures
were well presented/structured and communicated; establishing and promoting a culture
where environmental issues are given due priority and promulgating involvement through
activities, events etc.; and where needed, enforcing adherence, if necessary through
disciplinary sanction or other forms of action.

Question 2 A construction company has been employed to build an extension to a

large manufacturing facility. A serious leak occurred from a bowser
(mobile storage tank) at the construction site resulting in the escape of
several hundred litres of diesel oil, some of which has flowed into a
drainage ditch.

(a) Outline the practical actions that should be taken to minimise

environmental pollution that may arise from the incident. (8)

(b) Outline the actions that could be taken against the construction
company or its client under statute law. (12)

This was a popular question and most candidates provided good answers to Part (a)
which covered most or all of the following actions:

- isolating the leak to prevent further escape

- containing the spillage using bunds or absorbent materials
- damming the ditch if possible and attempting to contain any oil
- isolating and excavating any areas of contaminated ground
- placing booms across any receiving water courses
- notifying EA/SEPA/NIEA

4 EXTERNAL
 - vacuuming off any free oil from any affected surface waters
- removing all other contaminated materials for safe disposal.

Part (b) caused some candidates difficulty following the change in legislation on causation
of water pollution in England and Wales introduced under the Environmental Permitting
(England and Wales) Regulations 2010. Many candidates referenced actions that would
have been applicable under the former Water Resources Act 1991 regime and therefore
little credit could be given. Some candidates omitted to mention the actions that are
available under the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) Regulations and similar regional
equivalents. Better answers included consideration of the possibility that the construction
project may have been undertaken on an installation with an Environmental Permit and
referenced the various actions that would be available to a regulator. A good answer
would also have made brief mention of the scale of criminal penalties that apply under the
various statutes and the possibility of personal liability for directors and senior managers.

Question 3 Outline reasons why many waste producers are seeking to minimise the
use of landfill as a disposal route for their industrial and commercial
waste streams. (20)

Landfill is rapidly declining in importance as a disposal route for many household,

commercial and industrial wastes. This question allowed candidates to demonstrate their
awareness of the main reasons for this decline.

Most candidates advised that there are broad range of concerns over the effect that
landfilling may have on the environment, which may include:

• impact on global warming due to the emission of methane and carbon dioxide
• local and global air pollution effects of landfill gases, CFCs, etc
• health and safety concerns, particularly migration of methane gases
• potential for nuisance, including odour, litter, vermin and scavengers
• water pollution, particularly groundwater contamination from leachates.

Many candidates also gained credit for outlining natural resource concerns, such as:

• burying materials that could be recovered or recycled

• land required for landfilling and restrictions on what completed sites can be used
for
• restricting development of land due to concerns about health, safety and
environmental issues for buildings near to landfill sites.

Also worthy of credit was reference to local community concerns and effects of lobbying
by environmental groups.

Better answers made reference to cost factors. Landfill tax is progressively making landfill
less competitive to its alternatives and high operational costs due to tighter regulation of
landfills have increased prices for landfilling waste. The pattern of consolidation into
fewer, larger sites means greater transport distances to reach sites. For some wastes,
there are restrictions on disposal (liquids, hazardous wastes etc). The development of
new sites is limited due to the difficulties in obtaining planning permissions. On the other
hand recycling/reuse can yield income or significantly reduced costs compared to
landfill.

Many producers of waste have concerns over the longer term liability issues where waste
is incorrectly disposed of. For organisations holding ISO14001, there is pressure to seek
low waste systems, greater recovery of waste, recycling and other disposal options (such
as anaerobic digestion), energy recovery, etc. Many organisations are affected by
producer responsibility schemes that favour recovery of waste rather than disposal.

5 EXTERNAL
 Finally some candidates made reference to the effect of the Landfill Directive in restricting
biodegradable waste disposal and requiring that waste to landfill must be subject to pre-
treatment in most cases. Exceptional answers outlined the requirements that for
construction and demolition waste, this must now be dealt with by recycling/recovery
where possible under the Site Waste Management Plan provisions.

Most candidates who attempted this question did well and provided coverage many of the
above points.

Question 4 Describe appropriate indicators that may be used to measure an

organisation’s environmental management performance. (20)

Many organisations now have in place systems of performance indicators (often

referred to as Key Performance Indicators). Candidates could have chosen from a
wide variety of such indicators, including such measures as:

• incident frequencies
• near miss frequencies
• emissions to atmosphere
• waste generation and recycling rates
• water use
• discharges to surface water or sewer
• energy use
• noise emissions
• transport/travel emissions
• carbon dioxide emissions
• raw material use
• complaints.

Better answers also made reference to enforcement actions and adherence to

compliance standards. A few candidates also identified the value of audit findings,
particularly where scoring systems are in place.

Some candidates did not pay sufficient attention to the importance of the command
word in the question, which was 'describe'. A simple list of performance measures
would have attracted few marks in the absence of a description of what the measures
consist of and how they relate to performance.

Question 5 A company has recently discovered that an area of land at the rear of its
factory is contaminated by a wide range of substances as a result of
tipping of laboratory waste many years ago. Some of the substances are
migrating to cause pollution of a nearby stream.

Advise management, in the form of a briefing note, of the different types

of remediation techniques that could be used in this situation. (20)

This question allowed candidates to demonstrate their understanding of the various

remedial measures that may be used to prevent pollution arising from historically
contaminated land. A number of candidates failed to read the question thoroughly and
addressed the range of liability issues and the fundamentals of the ‘contaminated land
regime’ under the Contaminated Land Regulations or wasted time by describing desk
studies to establish whether land could be contaminated. Neither or these are relevant to
remediation techniques and so little credit was given.

6 EXTERNAL
 A well-structured answer identified the significance of the source-pathway-receptor
concept. The methods of dealing with contamination follow a hierarchy from measure to
control the source through to protecting any vulnerable receptors. Remediation is
commonly intended to remove or treat the source, cut the pathway or protect the receptor.
Within these three basic options, there are number of different remedial measures which
could be described. For example, a comprehensive answer would have included
reference to and a description of:

Source Reduction, by for example:

- excavation and disposal
- bioremediation both in-situ and ex-situ
- in-situ or ex-situ physical treatment, including soil washing
- thermal treatment.

Pathway modification, including:

- cover or capping systems
- vertical/horizontal barrier systems
- runoff/leachate/groundwater interception and extraction systems.

Or, receptor protection:

- protection of any at risk receptors, in this case the stream, through the use of oil
absorbent booms.

Question 6 Outline EACH of the following natural cycles AND describe how human
activity may cause changes to these cycles.

(a) The carbon cycle. (10)

(b) The nitrogen cycle. (10)

Understanding of the Earth's natural cycles is a fundamental requirement in the

syllabus. Being able to state how these cycles work and the effect that man's activities
have upon them is a critical to understanding how activities may cause change. Some
candidates could not give a valid outline how each cycle works and even more
candidates could not describe how human activities cause changes in the two selected
cycles.

Candidates who had grasped the fundamentals of the carbon cycle commonly gave an
outline in the form an annotated diagram for which appropriate credit was given. The
main stages in the cycle would have included:

 carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

 uptake by plants and effect of photosynthesis and passing through the food
chain with respiration back into the atmosphere
 atmospheric gas dissolving in rain water to form carbonic acid
 death/decay resulting in release of carbon dioxide back to the atmosphere
 tying up carbon in sinks, such as the formation of fossil fuels and carbonate
rocks.

Human activity causes changes to this cycle through for example: excavation and use
of fossil fuels releasing carbon dioxide to atmosphere; use of carbonate rocks for
cement leading to release of carbon dioxide to atmosphere; de-vegetation leading to
reduced uptake of carbon dioxide.

7 EXTERNAL
 With regard to the nitrogen cycle, again candidates frequently provided an outline in
the form of simple diagram, the key features of which would have included:

 nitrogen gas in atmosphere

 dissolving in rainfall to form nitrous/nitric acid
 deposition onto land
 oxidation by lightening to nitrogen oxide / nitrogen dioxide
 fixation by nitrifying bacteria in legumes nodules
 uptake by plants
 decay of plants and excretion by animals to soil/water
 release of nitrogen gas by denitrifying bacteria.

Relevant human activities could have included: making and using nitrogen based
fertilisers and runoff into water; high temperature processes causing oxidation of
nitrogen gas to nitrogen oxide / nitrogen dioxide; or discharge of sewage effluent
containing nitrogen compounds into rivers.

Question 7 (a) Explain the meaning of the common law torts of ‘private
nuisance’ and ‘public nuisance’. (14)

(b) Identify the possible defences and remedies available for

‘private nuisance’ and ‘public nuisance’. (6)

This question was popular with candidates but some confused common law nuisance
and statutory nuisance. Nuisance is one of the fundamental principles of tort law.
Common law nuisance has developed through two branches, private nuisance and
public nuisance. Private nuisance is basically an unreasonable interference with a
person’s use or enjoyment of land, or some right over or in connection with it. To be
liable under the tort, it should be foreseeable that actions would be likely to give rise to
a nuisance. Typical activities actionable under private nuisance include:
encroachment (eg landslide); physical damage to land (eg migrating landfill gases
killing vegetation); interference with enjoyment of property (eg noise or smells).
Private nuisance is actionable by individuals with a direct proprietary interest in the
land in question. Liability for an unreasonable interference or nuisance depends on a
range of factors; such as:

 duration of the interference

 sensitivity of the claimant
 any malice
 character of the neighbourhood.

Public nuisance is a crime as well as a tort. In essence it is similar to private nuisance,

except that it is well established that there is no need to have an interest in land
affected and prescription is not a defence. Persons affected are the public, or a section
of it, which suffer damage at large. Typical examples of public nuisance would be:
wide scale fallout of dust over a large number of properties; blasting noise and fly
rocks from a quarry; an offensive smell affecting a town centre.

In part (b), candidates could have made reference to various defences against a
nuisance claim, including:

 prescription – continuing a nuisance for 20 years may legalise it by

prescription
 statutory authority
 act of God or a stranger.

8 EXTERNAL
 Remedies under nuisance include: an injunction; right to take action to abate the
nuisance, where notice is given to defendant, no unnecessary damage is caused and
the abatement is that course of action that represents least cost to the defendant;
and/or damages.

Candidates who illustrated their answers with appropriate references to leading case
law examples gained additional credit.

Question 8 Describe the principles of operation of the following types of air pollution
control device, including the categories of pollutant and types of plant on
which they would be used.

(a) Bag filter. (5)

(b) Electrostatic precipitator. (5)

(c) Wet scrubber. (5)

(d) Activated carbon adsorption device. (5)

Relatively few candidates attempted this question. Of those that did, most provided
adequate descriptions, often based around a diagram, together with a general
description to show that they understood how each device worked. The principles of
filtration of dusts, electrostatic attraction of dusts, absorption of gases and particles
into liquids and adsorption of gases and vapours (principally organic) onto a solid
media were given for each device in turn with varying degrees of detail. Fewer
candidates gained marks for their references to the types of plant upon which each
device would typically be used, often neglecting this completely, or incorrectly stating
applications.

9 EXTERNAL
The National Examination
Board in Occupational
Safety and Health

Dominus Way
Meridian Business Park
Leicester LE19 1QW

telephone +44 (0)116 2634700

fax +44 (0)116 2824000
email info@nebosh.org.uk
www.nebosh.org.uk