East Coast Lags West in Protecting Workers Toiling in Smoke

Workers on the East Coast laboring outdoors in the thick wildfire smoke that’s drifted down from Canada don’t have the same protections as their West Coast counterparts.

While California and Oregon enacted workplace health rules covering wildfire smoke and Washington state’s rule is coming, federal OSHA and Eastern state workplace agencies haven’t adopted similar regulations. If the state rules had been in effect for the Eastern Seaboard this week, employers could have been forced to provide free N95 respirators to their outdoor workers and take other precautions.

“The West Coast is further along on this path,” said Joan Casey, ...