VLCT recently received this information from Doug Kalinowski of the U.S. Department of Labor's Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs (by way of Dan A. Whipple, OHST, VOSHA Program Manager for the Vermont Department of Labor).
For context and explanations of how the proposed federal rules would affect local governments, see VLCT's April 23 posting OSHA Proposes Updates to Emergency Response Regulation.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has extended the comment period on its proposed rule to provide expanded safety and health protections for emergency responders, including firefighters, emergency medical service providers and technical search and rescue workers. Interested parties now have until Monday, July 22, 2024, to submit comments electronically at regulations.gov, which is the Federal eRulemaking portal. All submissions must include the agency's name and docket number for this rulemaking (Docket No. OSHA-2007-0073). For more information, please see the Federal Register notice or visit osha.gov/emergency-response/rulemaking.