Friday, May 13, 2022
CapitalPress.com 3
Bird fl u strikes backyard fl ocks in Oregon, Washington
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Bird fl u has been found
in backyard fl ocks in Linn
County in Western Oregon
and in Pacifi c County in south-
west Washington, animal
health offi cials said May 6.
They are the fi rst detec-
tions of the disease this year
among domestic birds in the
two states. Highly patho-
genic avian infl uenza already
had been found in 32 other
states, dating back to early
February.
Washington State Depart-
ment of Agriculture veter-
inarian Danna Dobbs said
she had hoped the Northwest
would be spared as virus-car-
rying waterfowl migrated
north.
“We were holding our
breaths that it would pass
the Pacifi c fl yway, but now,
unfortunately, we are all
involved,” she said.
The USDA’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Ser-
vice laboratory in Ames,
Iowa, on May 5 confi rmed
state tests showing the birds
in the two backyard fl ocks
were infected.
Dobbs said the owner of
the Pacifi c County fl ock had
about 100 chickens and tur-
keys. He reported seeing a
crow mixing with the poul-
try. “The next day, he literally
described them dropping like
fl ies,” she said.
The virus showed up the
past week in the Linn County
fl ock, killing three geese.
Offi cials said the fl ock had
about 100 birds.
Bird fl u has caused the
destruction of 37.3 mil-
lion domestic birds this year,
according to the USDA.
The virus caused 50 million
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Bird fl u has been found in backyard fl ocks in Oregon
and Washington.
domestic birds to be killed
in 2015, mostly chickens and
turkeys euthanized on com-
mercial farms.
Washington and Oregon
were the fi rst states to be hit
by highly pathogenic infl u-
enza in the winter of 2014-15.
Bird fl u this year already has
struck much of the country,
particularly Iowa, Nebraska,
Minnesota, South Dakota and
Pennsylvania.
Bird fl u has been detected
in four backyard fl ocks in
Idaho. The USDA confi rmed
bird fl u in a backyard fl ock in
Matanuska-Susitna Borough,
Alaska, on April 30.
Bird fl u has not been
confi rmed in any commer-
cial poultry farm in Oregon,
Idaho, Washington and Cali-
fornia. In the West, two com-
mercial farms in Colorado
and one in Utah have been
infected.
In 2015, bird fl u spread
swept through large commer-
cial farms as the virus spread
from barn to barn on clothes
and equipment. This year, the
virus appears to be mostly
introduced at many points by
wild birds infecting domestic
birds, offi cials said.
The virus this year is
infecting more wild bird spe-
cies and killing more, too,
said U.S. Geological Survey
emerging disease coordinator
Bryan Richards.
“There is a lot more virus
out there this time in the envi-
ronment,” he said.
Richards said that even if
the virus burns out this spring,
it could reappear in the fall
as migratory birds fl y south.
Europe suff ered an outbreak
in the spring of 2021. After
waning over the summer, the
virus came back in the fall.
“I wouldn’t bet against this
virus coming back,” Richards
said.
The USDA reports bird fl u
outbreaks to the World Orga-
nization for Animal Health
and international trading part-
ners. International guidelines
call for trade restrictions to be
limited to the immediate area
of the outbreak.
Offi cials said Friday
they did not know whether
the confi rmation of bird
fl u in the two backyard
fl ocks would lead to export
restrictions.
In time for summer, Oregon OSHA adopts permanent rules to protect
L&I breaks out heat rule farmworkers from high heat, wildfi re smoke
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington farmwork-
ers must have 10-minute paid
rest breaks every two hours
if the temperature reaches
89 degrees or higher under
an emergency rule the state
Department of Labor and
Industries plans to adopt.
The rule will be in eff ect
between June 1 and Sept. 29
and apply to workers who are
outside at least 15 minutes in
an hour. The trigger for out-
door workers wearing outer
clothing, such as coveralls or
jackets, will be 77 degrees.
The rule will carry over
some emergency rules from
last summer’s heat-exposure
rule, but also will introduce
new requirements, including
the mandatory paid breaks.
New workers will also
have to be closely watched
for 14 days while they
become acclimated to the
heat. All workers will have
to be observed for signs of
heat-related illnesses, by
sight, voice, text or a “manda-
tory buddy system.”
Employers will have to
provide a shady place to sit
and supply “suitably cool”
water or sports drinks. Even
if workers bring their own
water, employers will have to
bring water, too.
“You can’t rely on employ-
ees bringing their own,” said
L&I health and safety spe-
cialist Bradley Farrar.
Because it’s an emergency
rule, L&I did not have to
assess the cost to businesses.
A permanent rule requires a
fi nancial analysis to lessen the
impact on small businesses.
L&I announced nine
months ago it would write a
permanent rule.
“We wanted to have per-
manent rule-making, and we
did not get that far, so we
need to have an emergency
rule so that we have protec-
tions in place for employees,”
said Teri Neely, technical ser-
vices program manager of
the Division of Occupational
Safety and Health.
L&I rolled out a draft of
the emergency rule Wednes-
day at an online forum.
Department offi cials said they
will take comments until May
15 and then fi nalize the rule.
Washington Farm Bureau
director of government rela-
tions Tom Davis criticized
the department’s timing and
failure to do a cost analysis
required of a permanent rule.
“How can they justify an
emergency? It gets hot every
summer,” he said.
“A lot of farms already
have done their safety and
heat training,” Davis said.
“Our concern is that this
could be used as a ‘got-
cha’ for farms, and that they
come out and fi nd all kinds of
violations.”
L&I offi cials fi elded ques-
tions Wednesday from a range
of employers. The depart-
ment was unable to answer
some questions.
Since employers will
be required to train work-
ers to avoid heat exposure,
they wanted to know when
L&I will hand out training
materials.
“Our education and out-
reach team is currently dili-
gently working on updating
all of our training materials
and hopefully we will get this
out soon,” Farrar said.
L&I offi cials couldn’t say
whether old employees had
to undergo the 14-day accli-
mation period when tempera-
tures reached 89 degrees.
It was also unclear how
the acclimation period would
apply if temperatures dropped
below 89 degrees. It is an
“interesting scenario that we
may not have walked through,”
Farrar said. “I’d say that obser-
vation should continue.”
Can a driver after load-
ing or unloading in the heat
take the 10-minute manda-
tory break while driving in
an air-conditioned vehicle?
Or will the driver have to
stay in place while the motor
and air conditioner run for 10
minutes?
“I’ll have to look at that
scenario a little more closely,”
Farrar said.
The rule will limit worker
choices. What if a worker
wanted to rest in a vehicle
with the windows down but
without the air conditioner
running?
“A vehicle running with
air conditioning would meet
the requirements of shade.
However, a vehicle without
air conditioning would not,”
Farrar said.
Washington law already
requires employers to respond
to workers showing signs of
heat stress.
The Building Industry
Association of Washington
said more rules “only add
complexity for Washington
builders with little or no added
protection for workers.”
“We’re also concerned
they’re proposing an emer-
gency rule when they started
the permanent rule-making
process nearly a year ago and
had plenty of time to adopt
rules under the proper pro-
cess,” the BIAW said in
statement.
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
SALEM — Oregon
OSHA on Tuesday adopted
permanent rules intended to
protect workers, including
farmworkers, from high heat
and wildfi re smoke.
The rules create additional
requirements for employers.
The heat rule creates
guidelines around access to
shade and cool water, pre-
ventive cool-down breaks
and prevention plans, infor-
mation and training. The
wildfi re smoke rule includes
exposure
assessments
and controls, training and
communication.
The heat rule will take
eff ect June 15 and the wildfi re
smoke rule July 1.
The rules are designed to
protect workers who rely on
employer-provided housing,
including on-farm operations.
The new rules, which
have been in development for
months, build on the tempo-
rary emergency rules Oregon
OSHA adopted last summer
after a 38-year-old farm-
worker, Sebastian Francisco
Perez, died of apparent heat
stroke during the June “heat
dome” that enveloped the
Northwest.
According to a document
Oregon OSHA released to the
Capital Press in an email, the
new workplace rules are “the
most protective of their kind
in the United States.”
This was echoed by Ira
Cuello Martinez, climate pol-
icy associate at the farmwork-
ers union Pineros y Campes-
inos Unidos del Noroeste, or
PCUN, who called the new
rules “big victories.”
“The heat and smoke pro-
posed rules are some of the
strongest in the nation,” Mar-
tinez told the Capital Press
shortly before the rules were
offi cially released to the pub-
lic. “So, these (rules) are very
exciting. It’s exciting to see
Curt Kipp/Oregon Association of Nurseries
Nursery workers in a fi eld. Oregon OSHA has created
new rules intended to protect farmworkers from heat
and smoke.
these changes to improve
working conditions for
farmworkers.”
In a statement, Gov. Kate
Brown called the new rules
“a national model for heat and
wildfi re smoke protections for
all workers.”
Some farm groups, how-
ever, are concerned.
“The Oregon Farm
Bureau is disappointed
that OR-OSHA adopted
rules that open employers
up to signifi cant new lia-
bility for heat and smoke
events outside their con-
trol,” said Mary Anne Coo-
per, vice president of gov-
ernment aff airs at Oregon
Farm Bureau. “Many of the
proposed requirements will
be impossible to apply or
leave family farms exposed
to penalties and litigation.”
Cooper said that while
Oregon OSHA was develop-
ing the rules, Oregon Farm
Bureau had urged the agency
to adopt rules that protected
workers but were also doable
for employers.
The fi nal rules, she said,
could hurt small and fam-
ily-run farm businesses
and are “yet another exam-
ple of agency overreach by
unelected bureaucrats.”
The full text of the rules
will be posted on Oregon
OSHA’s website this week,
but here’s a summary:
What the heat rule does:
• Applies to outdoor and
indoor (when there is no cli-
mate control) work activ-
ities, where the heat index
equals or exceeds 80 degrees
Fahrenheit.
• Requires one or more
shade areas “immediately
and readily available” to
exposed employees who are
outdoors.
• Requires an “adequate
supply of drinking water”
for exposed employees, with
immediate availability, no
cost and the opportunity to
drink.
• Requires a specifi c rest-
break schedule — when the
heat index equals or exceeds
90 degrees Fahrenheit — for
preventive cool-down peri-
ods. Such breaks are work
assignments, with no cost to
employees.
• Requires “acclimati-
zation” to gradually adapt
employees
from
other
regions to working in heat
and to prevent heat illness.
• Requires a heat illness
prevention plan and supervi-
sor and employee training.
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