BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations Senator Ben Hueso, Chair Date of Hearing: June 25, 2014 2013-2014 Regular Session Consultant: Alma Perez-Schwab Fiscal:Yes Urgency: No Bill No: AB 2146 Author: Skinner As Introduced/Amended: June 17, 2014 SUBJECT Occupational safety: firefighters KEY ISSUES Should the Legislature encourage continuous review of standards for firefighters' personal protective equipment to ensure that they are providing the greatest degree of protection? Should the Legislature require that the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board review new standards adopted by the National Fire Protection Association to determine if these standards provide a greater degree of protection to CA firefighters, and if so, consider modifying our standards to ensure the highest protection possible? ANALYSIS The California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973 was enacted to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for all California workers by, among other things, authorizing the enforcement of effective standards as well as assisting and encouraging employers to maintain safe and healthful working conditions. The Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH, also known as Cal/OSHA), within the state Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), is charged with enforcing occupational health and safety laws, orders, and standards, including the investigation of alleged violations of those provisions. The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, also within DIR, is the entity tasked with promoting, adopting and maintaining reasonable and enforceable standards that ensure a safe and healthful workplace for CA workers. Existing regulations establish standards for the minimum requirements of personal protective clothing and equipment for firefighters when exposed to the hazards of firefighting activities and training activities involving a hazardous environment. Employers are responsible for ensuring availability, maintenance, and use of all protective clothing and equipment in accordance with specified Orders. (CA Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section §3401) This Bill would encourage continuous review of standards for firefighters' personal protective equipment (PPE) by requiring that the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Standards Board) follow specified tasks. Specifically, this bill would: 1) Require the Standards Board, within 30 days of the adoption by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) of new standards for firefighters' personal protective equipment, to commence a review of existing regulations for personal protective clothing and equipment to determine if the new NFPA standards provide a greater degree of protection to a firefighter. 2) Provide that if the Standards Board determines that new NFPA standards adopted provide a greater degree of protection, it shall consider modifying existing regulations to reflect the NFPA standards as a new safety standard for all employers of firefighters in CA. COMMENTS 1. National Fire Protection Association: The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is an international nonprofit organization established in 1896 comprised of firefighter professionals, industry representatives, and others concerned with fire safety. According to the NFPA website, the organization's mission is Hearing Date: June 25, 2014 AB 2146 Consultant: Alma Perez-Schwab Page 2 Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops, publishes and disseminates over 300 codes and standards that are designed to minimize the risk and effects of fire by establishing criteria for building, processing, design, service, and installation in the United States, as well as many other countries. The NFPA also establishes minimum requirements related to fire prevention and suppression activities, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) standards. According to NFPA, in order to ensure the optimum protection of firefighters, regardless of condition, PPE should be updated at least every five years and pulled from the field after ten years, which equates to two NFPA standard cycles. Adherence to the NFPA standards, as well as to a PPE retirement criteria is crucial to ensuring that the clothing and equipment used by firefighters is as up-to-date as possible. NFPA states that fire protection entities that ascribe to such criteria ultimately are able to better protect their first responders by reducing or eliminating altogether those on-the-job injuries that can otherwise be attributed to the use of outdated or inadequate PPE. 2. Need for this bill? The Occupational Safety & Health Standards Board is a seven-member body appointed by the Governor whose objective is to adopt reasonable and enforceable standards at least as effective as federal standards. Under current law, all employers in California are required to provide, at minimum, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for their employees who engage in firefighting activities that meet specified standards adopted by the Standards Board. According to the author and sponsors of this measure, with respect to some of the firefighting PPE standards, such as head, hand and wrist protections, the standards have not been updated by the Board in over 25 years. Other state PPE standards, such as respiratory and body protections have not been updated by the Board in roughly 15 years. The Blue Ribbon Commission Task Force, an 18-member Hearing Date: June 25, 2014 AB 2146 Consultant: Alma Perez-Schwab Page 3 Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations independent panel of fire service professional that was established by the Governor after the fires of 2003, was created to review efforts to fight the State's 2003 wildfires and provide recommendations to policy makers on ways to help prevent destruction from future fires. In January 2008, the Task Force published a report summarizing the most critical issues facing the fire service and the State of California - emphasizing that fire protection and prevention is an urgent need that cannot wait for the next catastrophic disaster. In its report, the task force, among other things, recommended that for those California fire agencies charged with responding to Wildland Urban Interface incidents, the current standards found in Title 8 governing Personal Protective Equipment for firefighters needed to be updated to adequately reflect firefighter PPE needs when responding to emergencies. As such, the author and sponsors of this bill believe this measure is necessary to ensure that firefighter personal protective clothing and equipment (PPE) standards are up-to-date, thereby resulting in a direct and critical effect of reducing the number of job-caused injuries and illnesses sustained by firefighters due to outdated, inadequate PPE. 3. Proponent Arguments : According to the author, whether mitigating a fire, emergency medical situation, hazardous materials incident or terrorist attack, a firefighter's only means of protection is his or her Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The PPE worn by firefighters is intended to provide protection from the harmful and often deadly outside environment. Unfortunately, the author argues, some of the standards governing this equipment have not been updated for many years. Meanwhile, proponents argue, technological advances have brought to market many safer and more effective alternatives for firefighter PPE. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 451,500 non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses in California reported in 2012. Proponents argue that such workplace injuries and illnesses cause an enormous amount of physical, financial and emotional hardship for workers and their families. According to proponents, CalOSHA is Hearing Date: June 25, 2014 AB 2146 Consultant: Alma Perez-Schwab Page 4 Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations responsible for the protection of workers from job-related health and safety hazards in almost every workplace in California, including firefighters, by using research to create and enforce standards that keep workers safe. Therefore, proponents argue, requiring that the Standards Board review existing regulations for firefighter PPE will help ensure that our workers are wearing the most protective gear available to ensure their safety. This bill encourages the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to bring firefighter personal protective clothing and equipment (PPE) standards up-to-date, thereby resulting in a direct and critical effect of reducing the number of job-caused injuries and illnesses sustained by firefighters due to outdated, inadequate PPE. 4. Opponent Arguments : None received. 5. Prior Legislation : AB 2184 (De Leon) of 2008: Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee This bill would have required the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to review and adopt revised state regulations that are at a minimum in conformance with the NFPA PPE standards by December 31, 2009. Unlike AB 2184, this bill (AB2146) requires the review of CA standards when a new NFPA PPE standard is adopted but only encourages the Standards Board to consider modifying state regulations to reflect these updates. SUPPORT California Professional Firefighters (Sponsor) California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO California Nurses Association California State Firefighters' Association Hearing Date: June 25, 2014 AB 2146 Consultant: Alma Perez-Schwab Page 5 Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations OPPOSITION None received Hearing Date: June 25, 2014 AB 2146 Consultant: Alma Perez-Schwab Page 6 Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations