DHS Denies OSHA Power to Invoke Emergency Response Plan

The Department of Homeland Security has updated the National Response Framework (NRF); however, some officials are angry the department failed to elevate the status of a worker safety and health annex.

According to an article by Katherine Torres on the Occupational Hazards website, officials wanted the annex elevated so the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) could immediately respond to an emergency.

“As a successor to the National Response Plan released in 2005, NRF focuses on response and short-term recovery and facilitates all-hazard preparedness from local communities to all levels of government,” Torres says. “It contains 23 annexes, including 15 emergency support function and eight support annexes. The worker safety and health annex provides guidelines for worker safety and health functions during national incidents, including acts of terrorism, major natural disasters or man-made emergencies.”

However, Torres says lawmakers have been questioning whether OSHA has a relevant role in the framework since it lacks the authority to independently implement the support annex.

OSHA Administrator Edwin Foulke Jr. had presented a proposal to elevate the status of the annex to the Domestic Readiness Group, an interagency emergency response oversight group coordinated by the White House. The proposal, however, was not accepted.

The worker safety and health annex supports the following activities:

• Assessing needs and risk through response and recovery worker site monitoring;
• Identifying sources for response-and-recovery worker safety and health needs;
• Providing expert technical assistance, including industrial hygiene, occupational safety and health, engineering and occupational medicine;
• Implementing and coordinating health and safety plans of various responders to ensure worker protection through consistency and uniformity;
• Managing, monitoring and providing exposure monitoring for chemical, biological and physical stressors;
• Managing, monitoring and/or providing technical assistance for an incident personal protective equipment program;
• Providing support and technical assistance for response and recovery worker exposure and injury and illness data;
• Communicating information and coordinate training for response and recovery workers; and
• Providing technical assistance and support to maintain response and recovery worker psychological resiliency.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.occupationalhazards.com/News/Article/78366/
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