Mountain Rescue Association President Mark Miraglia testified yesterday that a proposed Emergency Response rule from the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration would put unnecessary and burdensome requirements on SAR teams and recommended that OSHA remove wilderness technical search and rescue from the rule.
Miraglia spoke at a hearing for stakeholders to provide feedback to OSHA about the proposal. The new rule, which is an update to the more than 40-year old Fire Brigade Standard, is meant to update and codify requirements and safety protocols for firefighters, emergency medical responders and search and rescue workers. It would impact search and rescue teams with requirements for medical screenings, additional training and specifications for technical rescue equipment.
“We have significant concerns regarding the potential impact of these new standards on wilderness SAR,” said Miraglia. The new standard is not relevant to the work of search and rescue and focuses on hazards not faced by SAR teams, such as exposure to carcinogens, infectious disease or scenarios requiring firefighting turnout gear, Miraglia said.
“The proposed rule would have significant negative impact on volunteer participation in wilderness and technical SAR, likely leaving a gap in having volunteers available to conduct rescues across a wide area of the country,” Miraglia said. The MRA represents 93 SAR teams and more than 4,000 volunteers that serve on them. The MRA recommended that OSHA create a separate standard to cover wilderness SAR, working with the MRA, state SAR organizations and sheriff’s offices.
Representatives from OSHA asked Miraglia about specifics related to technical rescues that teams perform and whether there was data on how often that happened. They requested data on budgets, team size, number of responses each year and the number of exposures to hazardous waste. There were also questions about how often physical fitness and technical skills were reviewed. Comments can still be posted about the proposal until mid-January.
Miraglia’s testimony was part of a day-long hearing into the new rules proposed earlier this year, which are opposed by many sheriff’s departments, volunteer firefighter organizations and other first responders. The International Association of Fire Fighters presented a panel of experts, as did the National Volunteer Firefighter Association, and representatives of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians and the Small Business Administration. The International Association of Firefighters, representing career firefighters, said that the Fire Brigade standard is in need of updating to better reflect new hazards, changes in fire behavior and issues facing firefighters.
“Firefighting has changed dramatically in the past 40 years,” said Edward Kelly, General President of the IAFF. “New and increasingly dangerous hazards come our way at alarming rates. The fact that there are not national, enforceable safety standards has created gaping holes in firefighter safety.”
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