OSHA Expanding Protection Laws For Emergency Response Workers

Emergency Response Rulemaking

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced that it will publish a proposal in January 2024 to expand and update current safety and health standards for emergency responders. This proposal is an effort to expand protection laws for our emergency responders as the current standard is viewed as outdated and fails to keep up with today’s industry hazards. The proposal will also include issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to replace the existing Fire Brigades standard, 29 CFR 1910.156. OSHA plans to rename the standard to the “Emergency Response” standard.

1980 Fire Brigade Standard

The Fire Brigade standard, 29 CFR 1910.156, was first published in 1980 by OSHA as a set of regulations to protect industrial and private firefighters. For the last 40 years, OSHA and employers have relied on the 1980 standard to protect first responders from workplace hazards. The issue is that first responders deal with an unpredictable and broad range of job hazards. The 1980 standard was not designed as a comprehensive emergency response standard to fully comprise the full range of job hazards faced by today’s first responders. The standard only covers specific job hazards, is outdated in protective equipment performance and industry practices, does not align with other federal agency’s (e.g., Federal Emergency Management Administration) emergency response guidelines, and conflicts with industry consensus standards.

Proposed Emergency Response Standard

The role of a first responder extends to any employee who is trained and is responsible for responding to any emergencies and is not limited to public employees only such as firefighters, police officers, or paramedics. The new proposed standard will include protections in line with national consensus standards to cover a broader range of first responders exposed to hazards during and after emergencies. Key proposed updates include the following:

• Changing protective clothing and equipment requirements.
• Expanding and updating job hazards faced by today’s first responders.
• Requiring employers to obtain baseline medical screening for all emergency responders.
• Ensuring continued medical surveillance for responders when they are exposed to the byproducts of fires and explosions more than 15 times annually.

The proposed standard will also include a variety of other protective requirements for workers whose primary job is in emergency response and for workers whose emergency response duties are in addition to their regular daily work duties. These employees, as a collateral duty to their regular daily work assignments, respond to emergency incidents and provide services such as:

• Firefighting
• Emergency medical service
• Technical search and rescue

Volunteers will also be further addressed in the proposal. Some states with OSHA-approved State Plans regard firefighters and other volunteers as employees under state law. Regardless of whether these volunteers are considered employees under federal law, such States must treat them as it does other emergency response workers under its analogue to any final standard resulting from this rulemaking.

What’s Next?

No further information has been released by the agency at this time. ALL4 will continue to monitor for any new information or key updates and will update this document as appropriate. ALL4 staff are experienced in planning for and implementing updated environmental, health, and safety regulatory requirements, including workplace safety procedures and training. If you have any questions on this topic, please contact Ivan Torres at itorres@all4inc.com and Victoria Sparks at vsparks@all4inc.com.