Review - OSHA Publishes Emergency Response Standard NPRM – Part 2 – Scope

Last Monday, the DOL’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register (89 FR 7774-8023) on “Emergency Response Standard”. This is the second part of a series of articles looking at that complex rule making. The first article in this series provided an overview of the proposed regulation. Here, I will look at the scope of the coverage of the new Emergency Response Standard found in the proposed 29 USC 1910.156. Specifically, this looks at the proposed §1910.156(a).

This rule would replace the existing Fire Brigade Standard (29 USC 1910.156). It extended the coverage of existing fire brigades to include a somewhat expanded definition of employers that have a workplace emergency response team (WERT) as well as new coverage of Emergency Service Organizations (ESOs). It would also include the ‘volunteers’ in a VFD whose members receive ‘direct remuneration. Additionally, since the new §1910.156(a) expands the coverage of to include ESOs, State Plans will have to be adapted to cover ESO’s including those of ‘public agencies of the State and its political subdivisions’.

For a more detailed discussion of the scope of coverage of the proposed Emergency Response Standard see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/osha-publishes-emergency-response-b39 - subscription required.