Standards board approves regulation to protect workers from wildfire smoke

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, a part of the state’s Department of Industrial Relations, has adopted an emergency regulation to protect outdoor workers from wildfire smoke.

The regulation is expected to take effect as soon as early August and would be effective for one year. It would apply to workplaces where the Air Quality Index for airborne particulate matter is 151 or higher and in areas where there is reasonable expectation that employees could be exposed to wildfire smoke.

The regulation requires employers to take several steps to protect workers who may be exposed to the smoke. The board decided that employers must identify harmful exposure before each shift and periodically after that, reduce exposure by moving workers to an enclosed building or an area where the particulate matter is 150 or lower and provide respirators and training if employees cannot be moved.

The process of creating the emergency regulation started last December when the board received a petition to protect workers from wildfire smoke before this year’s wildfire season. The board has filed the regulation with the Office of Administrative law, which has 10 work days to review and approve it as a new safety standard enforced by Cal/OSHA. Once it is approved and published, the full text will appear in the California Code of Regulations.