The Department of Labor and Industries finalized and released the emergency rule covering wildfire smoke safety at the end of July. In response to this rule, all entities who have outdoor workers need to evaluate the exposure their employees have, and determine what protocols they need to put into place to ensure employees are kept safe from hazardous wildfire smoke exposure.
On demand webinar
In the first week of August AWC Retro provided a webinar to explain the rule and expectations for entities with exposed employees. This webinar is now available on-demand. The passcode to watch the webinar is A9EH6Vo$. After watching the webinar, if you have any questions about your obligations for worker safety in wildfire smoke situations,
please contact the Retro team. If you need help starting your wildfire smoke safety program, you can use the wildfire smoke program template AWC Retro created for members. Remember, when using this template you must input your organization’s specifics in order for it to be complete.
Training is one of the key obligations for this rule
You must train your employees on wildfire smoke exposures and your organization’s controls implemented to keep them safe. There are two good options available depending on how you wish to deploy training. AWC Retro has an employee training slidedeck that you can customize to provide team trainings. L&I has developed an on-demand learning lesson covering this topic. Employees can take the training at a convenient time for them using this tool. Please remember to complete that training with information on your city’s specifics if you choose to utilize this training tool.
A note on the future of this rule
This is an emergency rule that will expire after this fire season. We fully anticipate full rulemaking will be undertaken this winter. Be on the lookout for stakeholder meeting information if you are interested in providing your input or voice to this
issue concerning your organization. AWC Retro will continue participating in this process.