Who might be covered by a new Emergency Response standard?
The draft Emergency Response standard would apply to employers that mitigate a hazard in an emergency response situation and the activity is currently covered by 29 CFR 1910.156, or is not covered by another OSHA standard. The standard would apply to, but not be limited to, entities that provide one or more of the following services as a primary or secondary function:
- Firefighting
- Fire rescue
- Emergency medical service
- Technical rescue (rope/high angle, cave, collapse)
- Vehicle/machinery rescue
- Water rescue/recovery (land/shore based, swiftwater, underwater)
- Search and rescue (urban, mountain, wilderness)
Also covered by the standard are general industry, construction, and maritime industry employers that expect, based on past experience providing skilled support services to ESOs, a
mutual aid agreement, or a contract, to provide skilled support personnel at an emergency incident. Examples include employers who provide operators and equipment such as:
- Cranes
- Construction equipment (bulldozers, backhoes, excavators, etc.)
- Vacuum trucks
- Heavy duty wrecker/rotator tow vehicles
- Utility service (gas, water electric)
- Public health employers.
Some employers provide emergency services or designate employee tasks that are already covered by other OSHA standards and are therefore are not covered by the draft Emergency Response standard. They are:
- Employers that designate and train certain employees to assist in the orderly evacuation and rescue of other employees during an emergency in accordance with 29 CFR 1910.38, Emergency action plans, or to use portable fire extinguishers in accordance with 29 CFR 1910.38, and 1910.157, Portable fire extinguishers;
- Employers that handle small releases covered by 29 CFR 1910.119, Process Safety Management of highly hazardous chemicals (PSM), and who may also be covered by 29 CFR 1910.120, Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER), and employers that respond to hazardous materials releases covered by HAZWOPR;
- Employers that provide medical services and first aid in accordance with 29 CFR 1910.151, Medical services and first aid;
- Employers that provide any of the following specialized types of rescue or emergency response:
- Confined spaces rescue in accordance with 29 CFR 1910.146, Permit-required confined spaces, or 29 CFR 1926 Subpart AA, Confined spaces in construction;
- Equipping and training grain handling employees for rescue procedures in accordance with 29 CFR 1910.272, Grain handling facilities;
- Employers with employees who may enter trenches and other surface excavations in accordance with 29 CFR 1926 Subpart P, Excavations;
- Shipyard fire protection in accordance with 29 CFR 1915 Subpart P, Fire protection in shipyard employment.
For example, if an employer has employees who ONLY mitigate hazardous chemical releases in accordance with 29 CFR 1910.120 (HAZWOPER), the employer would NOT be covered by the draft Emergency Response standard since these activities are already regulated by an OSHA standard, and the employer would have no obligation to comply with the draft standard. But, if the employer’s HAZWOPR responders are also firefighters on the fire brigade (an activity not covered by HAZWOPER), then the employer would have to comply with the draft Emergency Response standard, with respect to the employees’ duties as firefighters.
This standard would not apply to employers during post–emergency incident activities (which begins when emergency incident command is terminated by the Incident Commander (IC) or Unified Command). Any employers whose employees remain at the location of the incident during post–emergency incident activities would comply with all other OSHA standards (Parts 1910, 1926) as appropriate to the industry.