OSHA to Update Safety Standards for Emergency Response Workers

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will propose rules next year to update workplace safety standards for firefighters, emergency medical service providers, and search-and-rescue workers. OSHA said it will modernize its “Fire Brigades” standards, saying the safety processes published in 1980 have become outdated. “Currently, OSHA regulations protect emergency responders’ safety and health in a patchwork of decades-old, hazard-specific standards,” OSHA said. “Not designed as comprehensive emergency response standards, they fail to address the ...