OSHA Fire Brigade Standard
Published Monday, June 10, 2024
SUMMARY: OSHA is proposing through this notice of proposed rulemaking
(NPRM) to issue a new safety and health standard, titled Emergency
Response, to replace the existing Fire Brigades Standard. The new
standard would address a broader scope of emergency responders and
would include programmatic elements to protect emergency responders
from a variety of occupational hazards. The agency requests comments on
all aspects of the proposed rule.
Concerns
The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently proposed significant changes to the OSHA Fire Brigade Standard (1910.156). The new OSHA 1910.156 rule (Emergency Response Standard), if approved in its current form, will dramatically change the face of the fire service in across the nation. The tumultuous impact created by these changes will be felt by volunteer, combination and career departments alike. Comment Due Date Jun 21, 2024
While the goal of the new rule is to further protect the safety of emergency responders, it was crafted in a vacuum and does not reflect the challenges that emergency response agencies face in the real world. While the fire service fully agrees that responder safety is of paramount importance, that goal must be balanced with the abilities and resources of the agencies responsible for those individuals. After careful review, it is apparent that many of the changes and new requirements will negatively impact already struggling response agencies. In fact, the new standard could hamper recruitment and retention efforts and even cause many current firefighters to leave the service. Despite its bureaucratic “good intentions”, this new rule could actually decrease firefighter health and safety.
The 608-page document published by OSHA contains data and stories as to why the changes are needed. Based on our real-world experience, we question the reliability of some of the data and theories used to produce this proposal. Rather, there are less intrusive actions that fire service organizations could take that would have immediate positive impacts on firefighter safety and create little or no additional burdens. Several of these areas have been untouched by the proposed standard, while costly and time-consuming requirements have made their way into the proposed regulation. Twenty-two National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards have been fully incorporated into the new OSHA standard by reference, with another fourteen included in part. This means that any place the NFPA standard says “shall” or “must” the AHJ would be responsible to adhere to them.
These changes will have major implications on every AHJ, fire officer and firefighter. Our concern here is not merely that they are unfunded mandates. The unattainable nature of this proposed standard virtually ensures that many departments will be in non-compliance.
The proposed changes have been published in the Federal Register and are currently in a comment period that has been extended until July 22.The fire service must be united in their response to this potentially devastating governmental action. This includes involvement by your fire service organization. We need you to inform your department of this situation and ask them to request that the comment period be extended further and that OSHA hold an “in person” hearing where testimony can be presented.
Every department should review the proposed rulemaking and submit comments on how it would negatively impact their organization. They should also inform the public of these negative impacts and ask them to file comments too.
The importance of filing immediate comments cannot be overstated.
(Source: FASNY)
Comment Due Date
Jun 21, 2024
OSHA Executive Summary
Elements of emergency responder (firefighters, emergency medical
service providers, and technical search and rescuers) health and safety
are currently regulated by OSHA primarily under a patchwork of hazard-
specific standards, and by state regulations in states with OSHA-
approved State plan programs. (While OSHA standards do not apply to
volunteers, some volunteers are covered in states with OSHA-approved
State plan programs.) All of the OSHA standards referred to above were
promulgated decades ago, and none was designed as a comprehensive
emergency response standard. Consequently, they do not address the full
range of hazards currently facing emergency responders, nor do they
reflect major changes in performance specifications for protective
clothing and equipment or major improvements in safety and health
practices that have already been accepted by the emergency response
community and incorporated into industry consensus standards. Notably,
the OSHA standards do not align with the Department of Homeland
Security's National Incident Management System (NIMS), which guides all
levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, and the private
sector to work together to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond
to, and recover from emergency incidents.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001,
all government agencies, including OSHA, were directed to strengthen
their preparedness to respond to terrorist attacks, major disasters,
and other emergencies. In response to this direction, the agency
reviewed its standards applicable to the safe conduct of emergency
response and disaster recovery activities and identified gaps in the
protections for emergency responders and disaster recovery workers. The
agency subsequently published a Request for Information (RFI), using
the Fire Brigades standard (29 CFR 1910.156) as a baseline for
emergency response activities, to determine if it should proceed with
updating and expanding the standard.
Responses to the RFI generally supported the need for continued
rulemaking; therefore, the agency worked with the National Advisory
Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH) to assemble a
subcommittee of emergency response community representatives to develop
draft regulatory language through a process akin to negotiated
rulemaking. To ensure a draft standard would incorporate best practices
and the latest advances in technology, OSHA invited emergency response
stakeholder organizations to provide subject matter experts to consult
with and participate on the Subcommittee. The Subcommittee comprised a
balanced group of subject matter experts representing labor and
management, career and volunteer emergency service management
associations, other Federal agencies and State plans, a national
consensus standard organization, and general industry skilled support
workers. NACOSH unanimously recommended that OSHA proceed with the
rulemaking to update its emergency response standard and endorsed the
draft regulatory language developed by the Subcommittee.
In accordance with the requirements of the Small Business
Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA), OSHA convened a Small
Business Advocacy Review (SBAR) panel in the fall of 2021. The panel,
comprising members from the Small Business Administration's (SBA)
Office of Advocacy, OSHA, and OMB's Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs, listened to and reported on what Small Entity
Representatives (SERs) from entities that would potentially be affected
by the proposed rule had to say. OSHA provided SERs with the draft
regulatory language developed by the NACOSH subcommittee for their
review and comment. The Panel received advice and recommendations from
the SERs and reported its findings and recommendations to OSHA. OSHA
has taken the SERs' comments and the Panel's findings and
recommendations into consideration in the development of the proposed
rule.
The proposed rule updates by replacing the existing Fire Brigades
standard and would expand the scope of OSHA's standard to include a
broad range of hazards emergency responders encounter during emergency
response activities and would bring the standard in line with the
Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) National Response
Framework and modernize the standard to align with the current industry
consensus standards issued by the National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA) on the safe conduct of emergency response activities.
As noted in the first paragraph above, and discussed in detail
below, OSHA standards do not apply to volunteer emergency responders.
However, in States with OSHA-approved State Plans, volunteers may be
treated as employees under state law. OSHA has no authority over how
individual states regulate volunteers. See section III.B, Pertinent
Legal Authority, and section VIII.G, Requirements for States with OSHA-
Approved State Plans, for further discussion. Throughout this document,
the agency seeks input on alternatives and potential exclusions for
economically at-risk small and volunteer organizations that will be
shared with State Plans as they determine how to proceed with their
subsequent individual state-level rulemaking efforts.
Organizations that provide emergency services vary significantly in
size and the type(s) of service(s) they provide. They are often not
well suited for ``one-size-fits-all'' prescriptive standards.
Accordingly, the proposed rule is a ``performance-based'' standard,
which provides flexibility for affected employers to establish the
specific criteria that best suits their organization. The proposed rule
focuses on the achievement of desired results--improving emergency
responder health and safety and reducing injuries and fatalities--while
providing flexibility as to the precise methods used to achieve those
results. The performance-based nature of the proposed rule is
particularly beneficial to small and
volunteer organizations with limited resources. (Source: OSHA)
