A recently submitted petition addressing air quality standards related to wildfires is currently working its way through the administrative process. The Occupational Safety & Health Standards Board will have six months to issue a response to the submitted petition.
“The Camp Fire was the most costly natural disaster in the world last year. It burned 18,000 structures down and when those 18,000 structures get burned, it creates a lot of smoke and smoke affects workers,” said Heat and Agriculture Program Coordinator for Cal/OSHA, David Hornung. “We’ve got ag workers that have to be outside and have to be working in those conditions, so the question is, how do you protect those workers?”
There is still considerable time before any action will officially be taken on the petition, but information on what has been proposed is available. “Employers and the public can go online right now and see the division’s response. It’s a 17-page response, it’s excellent, it provides a lot of really useful information and statistics on the hazards of wildfire smoke,” Hornung noted.
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