A workplace safety rule specifically designed to combat the risks of an airborne virus should have been protecting hundreds of thousands of California workers from COVID-19. The Aerosol Transmissible Diseases Standard took effect 12 years ago — and it anticipated a pandemic. But one year into the pandemic, workers say enforcement is mixed, and problems continue. Regulators at Cal/OSHA have issued more citations on this rule in the last five months than they did in the previous five years.
The rule applies to hospitals and nursing homes, to home health workers and coroners, to jails and ambulance companies: any place where an airborne disease would be expected to appear to catch, hold and spread widely. Employers must have annual training and written plans for exposure. They have to identify activities at work that are high hazard and figure out ways to minimize the risk. They have to have respiratory protection equipment, not just N95s, but sometimes powered air-purifying respirator hoods, called PAPR hoods.
Employees are entitled to medical services like vaccinations and evaluations after someone's been exposed. And if they get sent home for getting sick on the job, they're entitled to sick pay.