Wildfires Provoke Cautionary Advisory to Employers on Worker Safety

Cal/OSHA issued an advisory yesterday reminding employers of the dangers posed by wildfire smoke and the special precautions that must be taken to protect workers.  

Employers with operations exposed to wildfire smoke must consider taking appropriate measures as part of their Injury and Illness Prevention Program under Title 8 section 3203 of the California Code of Regulations and as required under section 5141 (Control of Harmful Exposure to Employees). Those measures include:

• Engineering controls whenever feasible (for example, using a filtered ventilation system in indoor work areas)
• Administrative controls if practicable (for example, limiting the time that employees work outdoors)
• Providing workers with respiratory protective equipment, such as disposable filtering facepieces (dust masks).

View the entire Cal-OSHA Worker Safety in Wildfire Regions Advisory

For more information, contact Jason Resnick at (949) 885-2318.