New rules to protect workers when air is smoky
California’s garbage collectors, grape pickers, landscapers and other outdoor workers won’t have to hold their breath or call in sick this year when wildfire smoke wafts into town, according to new worker safety regulations that go into effect next month.
The emergency workplace standards, approved this month by the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, require employers to protect workers from the kind of choking soot that blanketed the Bay Area during major fires over the past two years.
The new rules apply to outdoor workers and semiindoor places, like auto body shops that aren’t completely enclosed and don’t have air filtration systems. Employers will have the option to change workers’ duties and locations to protect them from wildfire smoke or, if that is not possible, distribute approved respirators, like N95 masks, that are designed to filter out the harmful particulates.
“We definitely think that it is needed,” said Doug Parker, the executive director of Worksafe in Oakland, one of several labor groups that filed a petition asking for the new standards. “We witnessed workers, particularly agricultural workers, throughout the state that were being exposed to unhealthy amounts of wildfire smoke without adequate protection from their employers.”
The new rules, which will be in place while permanent regulations are developed, require employers to take action when smoke from wildfires reaches 151 or greater on the Air Quality Index, a government monitoring system that measures particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. That’s about 1/20th the width of a human hair.
Experts say an average Air Quality Index rating of 22 is like smoking one cigarette a day.
By contrast, the index hovered around 271 for the Bay Area during November’s Camp Fire, when San Francisco experienced the worst air quality in its recorded history. That blaze killed 85 people and destroyed the Butte County town of Paradise on its way to becoming the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history.
Smoke also blanketed the Central Valley and darkened skies across Northern California, which earned the distinction during the fire of having the worst air quality in the world. The cough fest wasn’t isolated. Some 7,600 wildfires burned 1.8 million acres in California last year, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare it the most destructive fire season in state history.
Horrendous air quality is becoming a common occurrence.
It was almost as bad in October 2017, when dozens of wildfires raged through the Wine Country and across Northern California. In all, the two largest and deadliest wildfires and six of the 10 most destructive wildfires in state history occurred in the past two years.
Frank Polizzi, spokesman for the Department of Industrial Relations, which oversees the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal OSHA, said the ruling will actually make it easier for employers to step up. In the past, when wildfire smoke was identified as a workplace hazard, the rules required training, medical evaluations, fit tests for employees and instructions about the need to shave before employers began the mandatory distribution of masks, he said.
“That’s why this regulation was made, because previous requirements were burdensome and difficult to adopt to wildfire situations,” Polizzi said. “Now, with this more specific regulation, the respirators, or masks, can be provided on a voluntary basis.”
The emergency rulemaking process was initiated last December after the standards board received numerous requests from worker safety organizations, including Worksafe, the California Labor Federation and the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.
Wildfire smoke is particularly bad because it contains a mixture of gases and chemicals, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen, hydrocarbons and other hazardous compounds, according to the supporting documents for the new regulations filed by Cal OSHA.
Inhaling large amounts of these fine particles can cause respiratory problems and asthma, worsen heart and lung diseases, cause eye and skin irritation, and contribute to premature death, according to numerous scientific studies and reports.
Business operators must also provide a training session for employees about the regulations and on the use of respirators.
“It’s important because smoke exposures from both wildfires and managed fires will continue to grow,” said LeRoy Westerling, a climate and fire scientist at UC Merced. “We project that fire risk in California will continue to increase throughout this century and the fire season will continue to lengthen.”
Concerns were raised during public hearings by representatives of utilities, hospitals and the wine industry, most of whom urged the board to make the standards as clear as possible.
“Worker safety is a priority for Wine Institute and is one of the elements of its California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices,” wrote a spokesman for the Wine Institute, a San Francisco advocacy group for the wine industry, in an email after the regulations were passed. “Wine Institute will be supporting its members to insure compliance to the new regulations.”
The temporary standards are expected to go into effect on Aug. 5. Cal OSHA plans to hold a series of public hearings over the next year to craft permanent regulations. The first advisory meeting will be held Aug. 27 at Elihu M. Harris state office building, 1515 Clay St., Oakland.