BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Kevin de León, Chair AB 2146 (Skinner) - Occupational Safety: Firefighters Amended: June 17, 2014 Policy Vote: L&IR 5-0 Urgency: No Mandate: No Hearing Date: August 4, 2014 Consultant: Robert Ingenito This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Bill Summary: AB 2146 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. Fiscal Impact: The Department of Industrial Relations that the bill would result in annual costs of $28.000 (special fund). Significant state and local cost pressure, potentially in the millions of dollars, should DIR determine existing regulations need to be updated. If the regulations are found to constitute a new program or higher level of service, possible state mandated reimbursable costs could result. Background: 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 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. AB 2146 (Skinner) Page 1 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. The Occupational Safety & Health Standards Board within DIR 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. Some of the firefighting PPE standards, such as those pertaining to head, hand and wrist protections, 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. Proposed Law: This bill requires the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Standards Board), within 30 days of the adoption by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) of new standards for firefighters' personal protection equipment (PPE), to commence a review of existing regulations for personal protective clothing and equipment for firefighters to determine if the new standards provide a greater degree of protection to a firefighter. The Standards Board shall consider modifying existing regulations if they determine that the NFPA standards provide a greater degree of protection and reflect a new safety standard for firefighters. Related Legislation: AB 2184 (De León) of 2008 would have required the Standard Board to review and adopt revised state regulations that are, at a minimum, in conformance with the NFPA AB 2146 (Skinner) Page 2 PPE standards by December 31, 2009. AB 2148 was held under submission in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Staff Comments: Unlike AB 2184, this bill (AB2146) requires the review of state standards when a new NFPA PPE standard is adopted but only encourages the Standards Board to consider modifying state regulations to reflect these updates. DIR's costs reflect a subscription for the NFPA standards and their updates as well as the staff time to review and monitor the updates as they become available.