HST covers health and safety in cleaning, maintenance and restoration. Its official description emphasizes hazard assessment and the hierarchy of controls. Learn to distinguish removing a hazard, changing equipment, changing work practices and wearing protection, then connect chemical hazard information to labels, safety data sheets and training.
What the HST certification covers
The IICRC Health and Safety Technician (HST) certification covers occupational health and safety for cleaning, maintenance, and restoration work. It has no prerequisites and is available live-stream or in person.
HST is an IICRC certification in occupational health and safety for the cleaning, maintenance, and restoration industries. According to IICRC, it demonstrates competency concerning the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) — the United Nations framework for classifying chemicals and communicating their hazards — together with health and safety principles.
The certification covers engineering and administrative controls, work practices, and personal protective equipment used in each specific trade. It promotes hazard and risk assessments and implementing controls on identified hazards, and IICRC states that the hierarchy of hazard controls is emphasized so that eliminating, reducing, and controlling hazards becomes the focus rather than just regulatory compliance.
There are no prerequisites for the certification. IICRC offers it as a live-stream or in-person course with a certification exam, though course options are subject to change, so check the certification locator when you register. HST also has career value beyond itself: it is a required step toward the Master Water Restorer and Master Fire and Smoke Restorer designations.
Sources used: HST – IICRC — iicrc.org/hst
Exam format and retests
The published passing score is 75%. IICRC allows one initial attempt and up to two retests.
In-person candidates take the exam on the final course day. Candidates completing an available live-stream course use the IICRC Online Exam Portal. Online testing requires a supported desktop or laptop with a camera, microphone and internet connection; check the current portal requirements before testing.
The retest page gives 45 days from receipt of the IICRC Exam Notification. Your notification states your attempts and expiration date. Use that date; the FAQ pages also describe windows tied to course completion or scoring, so those different triggers should not be combined into a new deadline. After two unsuccessful retests, IICRC requires re-enrollment.
The public sources used here do not establish this certification's question count or time limit. Check the exam instructions for those details and confirm the applicable fee when registering.
Sources used: FAQs – IICRC — Live-Stream and In-Person exam sections; I Need to Retest – IICRC — Setting Up Your Retest; Retest FAQs – IICRC — Online portal and instructor retest sections
The hierarchy of controls: the organizing idea
The hierarchy ranks hazard controls by general effectiveness: elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, then personal protective equipment. Working down the list does not mean every level is always possible — it means start asking at the top.
NIOSH's hierarchy of controls identifies a preferred order of actions to control hazardous workplace exposures. Elimination, substitution, and engineering controls rank higher because they control exposures without relying on significant human interaction; administrative controls and PPE still reduce exposure but depend on workers following procedures correctly, every time.
The levels mean different things. Elimination removes the hazard at the source, such as changing a process to stop using a toxic chemical. Substitution swaps in a safer alternative — and a substitute is only effective if you first compare its new risks against the original ones, including how it combines with other agents in the workplace. Engineering controls block or remove the hazard before it reaches the worker, through measures like barriers and ventilation. Administrative controls reduce the duration, frequency, or intensity of exposure through work practices such as training, job rotation, rest breaks, and limiting access. PPE — gloves, eye protection, respirators — is worn to minimize exposure and is used when other controls cannot reduce exposure to safe levels.
Two boundary notes keep this honest. The order is a general preference, not a rigid sequence: NIOSH notes that elimination and substitution can be the hardest to adopt in an existing process and are easiest at the design stage. And higher-level controls do not automatically make PPE unnecessary — employers should not rely on PPE alone when other effective options exist, but PPE can be required alongside or while other controls are being implemented.
The following classroom exercise asks you to classify controls. It does not determine which combination is sufficient for an actual workplace.
Practice exercise
A paper example offers four proposals: (1) replace a hazardous product with an alternative already assessed as safer, including any new risks; (2) add local exhaust ventilation to reduce worker exposure; (3) change work schedules to reduce exposure duration; (4) provide suitable protective gloves. Classify each proposal under the NIOSH hierarchy. Do not assess adequacy for an actual site.
Show answer
(1) Substitution. (2) Engineering control. (3) Administrative control. (4) Personal protective equipment.
Replacing the hazardous product is substitution; ventilation changes the equipment or workspace and is an engineering control; scheduling changes are administrative; gloves are PPE. The explicit safer-alternative premise makes the first classification clear. NIOSH says substitution requires comparing new and original risks, not merely choosing a product with a different name. Several control levels may be needed together.
Sources used: Hierarchy of Controls | CDC (NIOSH) — Overview, Elimination, Substitution, Engineering controls, Administrative controls, PPE; HST – IICRC — iicrc.org/hst
Hazard communication: labels, safety data sheets and training
OSHA describes labels, safety data sheets and worker training as connected ways to communicate chemical hazards.
GHS means the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals. OSHA's Hazard Communication page explains that chemical manufacturers and importers evaluate hazards and prepare labels and safety data sheets to convey hazard information.
For workplaces with hazardous chemicals, the OSHA overview describes maintaining labels and safety data sheets for exposed workers and training them to handle chemicals appropriately. A safety data sheet is commonly abbreviated SDS. When studying a course example, identify which chemical the information concerns and how the label, SDS and training relate to the task.
This is United States regulatory background for the chemical communication topic named in HST. It does not establish a worldwide legal rule or an official weighting for HST exam questions.
Sources used: HST – IICRC — iicrc.org/hst; Hazard Communication - Overview | OSHA — Hazard Communication Standard and major changes
Organize your course review
Use the official HST scope as a coverage list and the course for detailed application.
Make separate entries for hazard and risk assessment, engineering controls, administrative controls, work practices, PPE and GHS. For each course example, name the hazard, classify the proposed controls and explain the information needed to assess them.
The NIOSH hierarchy is useful background because IICRC explicitly emphasizes that framework. The public HST page supplies no weighted exam blueprint. Review the full course, including areas that a short hierarchy or chemical-communication example cannot cover.
Sources used: HST – IICRC — iicrc.org/hst; Hierarchy of Controls | CDC (NIOSH) — Overview, Elimination, Substitution, Engineering controls, Administrative controls, PPE; Hazard Communication - Overview | OSHA — Hazard Communication Standard and major changes
Sources used
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