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.  








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          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  








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          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.