Marine Corps COOL Snapshot - Associate Safety Professional (ASP)

Associate Safety Professional (ASP)

Renewal Period: 5 years

The Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP), Associate Safety Professional (ASP) certification validates an individual's knowledge and experience in the safety profession. ASP certifies an individual's ability to perform at least 50% of professional-level safety duties in safety, health, environment, and ergonomics. Safety professionals are required to make worksite assessments to determine risks, potential hazards and controls, evaluate risks and hazard control measures for equipment, systems, facilities, and processes, investigate incidents, maintain and evaluate incident and loss records, and prepare emergency response plans. Candidates must meet a combination of education and experience requirements. Candidates must pass a written exam.

More information can be found on the certifying agency's website.

Associate Safety Professional (ASP)

The following Marine Corps Enlisted MOSs provide training and/or experience that contributes to attaining this credential:

Enlisted Occupation	Occupation Type	Related As	COOL$
0811 Field Artillery Cannoneer	MOS	Some	COOL Bucks
0842 Field Artillery Radar Operator	MOS	Other
0844 Field Artillery Fire Control Marine	MOS	Other
0848 Field Artillery Operations Chief	MOS	Some	COOL Bucks
1141 Electrician	MOS	Some	COOL Bucks
1161 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technician	MOS	Some	COOL Bucks
1169 Utilities Chief	MOS	Some	COOL Bucks
1171 Water Support Technician	MOS	Some	COOL Bucks
1869 Senior Armor SNCO	MOS	Some	COOL Bucks
2336 Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technician	MOS	Some	COOL Bucks
6499 Mobile Facility Technician	MOS	Some	COOL Bucks
Disaster Preparedness Specialist	Collateral Duty/Out of Billet MOS	Some	COOL Bucks
Safety Officer (RSO/PSO/OICs)	Collateral Duty/Out of Billet MOS	Some	COOL Bucks

The following civilian occupations are related to this credential:

	Civilian Job	Job Family	Bright Outlook	Registered Apprenticeship	Local Salary Info
	Occupational Health and Safety Specialists	Life, Physical, and Social Science			find local salary
	Occupational Health and Safety Technicians	Life, Physical, and Social Science	Bright Outlook		find local salary

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Attainability:

Eligibility Requirements (View Details)

Credential Prerequisite
Experience: 1 year
Education: Associates
Training
Membership
Other
Fee

Note: This credential may have multiple options for a Service member to meet eligibility requirements. Requirements listed here are based on the minimum degree required. To view other options, see the Eligibility tab.

Exam Requirements (View Details)

Exam
Written Exam
Oral Exam
Practical Exam
Performance Assessment

Exam Administration (View Details)

In-person exam
Remote proctored on-line exam
Third-party test vendor

RECERTIFICATION SUMMARY

Renewal Period: 5 years

Continuing Education
Exam
Continuing Education OR Exam
Fee
Other

AGENCY CONTACT INFORMATION

Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP)

8645 Guion Road
Indianapolis, IN 46268

Phone: 1-317-593-4800

Fax: 1-317-593-4400
Contact Page

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Education REQUIREMENTS

Candidate must have a minimum of a U.S. Bachelor’s degree in any field, or an Associate’s in safety, health, or the environment, or a closely related field.

Experience REQUIREMENTS

Candidate must have one-year of safety experience where safety is at least 50%, preventative, professional level with breadth and depth of safety duties.

Other REQUIREMENTS

The Associate Safety Professional (ASP) credential has the following other requirements:

Candidate must adhere to the BCSP Code of Ethics.

Written Exam

Advanced Sciences and Math
- General chemistry concepts (e.g., nomenclature, balancing chemical equations, chemical reactions, ideal gas law, and pH)
- Electrical principles (e.g., Ohms law, power, impedance, energy, resistance, and circuits)
- Principles of radioactivity (e.g., radioactive decay, half-life, source strength, concentration, and inverse square law)
- Storage capacity calculations
- Rigging and load calculations
- Ventilation and system design
- Noise hazards
- Climate and environmental conditions (e.g., Wet-bulb Globe Temperature [WBGT], wind chill, and heat stress)
- Fall protection calculations
- General physics concepts (e.g., force, acceleration, velocity, momentum, and friction)
- Financial principles (e.g., cost-benefit analysis, cost of risk, life cycle cost, return on investment, and effects of losses)
- Descriptive statistics (e.g., central tendency, variability, and probability)
- Lagging indicators (e.g., incidence rates, lost time, and direct costs of incidents)
- Leading indicators (e.g., inspection frequency, safety interventions, employee performance evaluations, training frequency, near miss, near hit, and close-call reporting)
Safety Management Systems
- Hierarchy of hazard controls
- Risk transfer (e.g., insurance and outsourcing – such as incident management or subcontracting)
- Management of change
- Hazard and risk analysis methods (e.g., preliminary hazard analysis, subsystem hazard analysis, hazard and operability analysis, failure mode and effects analysis, fault tree analysis, fishbone, what-if and checklist analysis, change analysis, energy trace and barrier [ETBS] analysis, and systematic cause analysis technique [SCAT])
- Process safety management
- Fleet safety principles (e.g., driver behavior, defensive driving, distracted driving, fatigue, and vehicle safety features)
- Hazard Communication and Globally Harmonized System
- Control of hazardous energy (e.g., lockout/tagout)
- Excavation, trenching, and shoring
- Confined space
- Physical security
- Fall protection
- Machine guarding
- Powered industrial vehicles (e.g., trucks, forklifts, and cranes)
- Scaffolding
Ergonomics
- Fitness for duty (e.g., fatigue and mental health)
- Stressors (e.g., environmental, lights, noise, and other conditions)
- Risk factors (e.g., repetition, force, posture, and vibration)
- Work design
- Material handling (e.g., manual, powered equipment, and lifting devices)
- Work practice controls (e.g., job rotation, work hardening, and early symptom intervention)
Fire Prevention and Protection
- Chemical (e.g., flash point and auto ignition)
- Electrical (e.g., static electricity, surge, arc flash, ground fault circuit interrupter, and grounding and bonding)
- Hot work (e.g., welding, cutting, and brazing)
- Combustible dust
- Fire science (e.g., fire pentagon, fire tetrahedron, upper and lower explosive limits)
- Detection systems
- Suppression systems, fire extinguishers, sprinkler types
- Segregation and separation (e.g., flammable materials storage and ventilation)
- Housekeeping
Emergency Response Management (ERM)
- Emergency, crisis, disaster response planning (e.g., drills)
- Workplace violence (e.g., shooting, bomb threat, vandalism, and verbal threats)
Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Health
- Sources of biological hazards (e.g., viral, bacterial, parasitic, fungus, and mold)
- Protocol for bloodborne pathogen control
- Mutagens, teratogens, and carcinogens
- Chemical hazards (e.g., sources, assessment, control strategies, symptoms, and target organs)
- Exposure limits (e.g., Threshold Limit Value [TLV], Short-term exposure limits [STEL], Time-Weighted Average [TWA], Ceiling Limit, Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health [IDLH], and Action Level [AL])
- Routes of entry (e.g., inhalation, ingestion, absorption, and injection)
- Acute and chronic exposures (e.g., additive effect, synergistic effect, antagonistic effect, and potentiation effect)
- Noise
- Radiation
- Heat and cold stress
Environmental Management
- Environmental hazards awareness (e.g., biological [mold], chemical, waste, and vermin)
- Water (e.g., storm, waste, and best practices)
- Air (e.g., quality and best practices)
- Land and conservation (e.g., solid waste, recycling, and sustainability)
- Hierarchy of conservation (e.g., reuse, recycle, and reduce)
- Environmental management system standards
- Waste removal, treatment, and disposal
Training, Education, and Communication
- Adult learning theory and techniques
- Presentation tools (e.g., computer-based and group meeting)
- Safety culture/climate
- Data collection, needs analysis, gap analysis, and feedback
- Assessing competency
Law and Ethics
- Legal liability
- Ethical behavior (e.g., professional practice, audits, record keeping, sampling, standard writing, and BCSP Code of Ethics)
- Protection of worker privacy (e.g., information)

Exam Preparation Resources

There are a number of resources available to help you prepare for the Associate Safety Professional (ASP) examination:

Best Sources

General References

An additional resource is O'Reilly Learning Safari Books Online, a searchable digital library that provides online access to thousands of books, training videos and conference sessions. See the Educational Resources section on the Related Sites page here on COOL to learn how to get free access.

Testing Information

Exam Administration
Credential exams may be administered in-person at a testing site, proctored on-line remotely, or have options for both. If an exam is administered through a test vendor, the third-party test vendor box will be checked. The following test administration options apply to the Associate Safety Professional (ASP) credential where checked:
- In-person exam
- Remote proctored on-line exam
- Third-party test vendor

For more information on the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) testing process, visit the agency website.

Third-Party Test Vendor Information
Testing for this credential is handled by the following vendor:

Pearson VUE

The test centers are located in the U.S. They also have some test centers on military bases.

To find out more, use the following links on the Pearson VUE website:

RECERTIFICATION

Associate Safety Professional (ASP)

Renewal Period: 5 years

The Associate Safety Professional (ASP) credential has the following recertification information:

Renewal occurs every five years (one cycle). During this time, certification holders must earn 25 points. There are 11 categories of activities, each providing points toward meeting that goal. There is no limit to the number of points in some categories, while other categories have annual and/or total point limits.

Additional information may be found in the BCSP Recertification Guide.

Note: Marine Corps COOL will only pay recertification fees for the current year, no arrears will be paid. Voucher requests for recertification fees must be submitted with proof of the current status of the certification (for example, a screen shot of your credentialing agency dashboard or a copy of a current fee receipt).