BILL ANALYSIS �
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
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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
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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
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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
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OPPOSITION
None received
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Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations