Quick Hits
- Nevada’s Senate Bill (SB) 260, effective January 1, 2026, mandates comprehensive requirements for employers to protect outdoor workers from wildfire smoke hazards.
- Employers must implement written programs to mitigate exposure, monitor air quality, provide employee training, and establish communication systems for reporting air quality and health symptoms.
- SB 260 includes specific measures for air quality index levels and exemptions for certain employers, with further regulatory measures to be established by the administrator of the Division of Industrial Relations.
Who Is Covered?
The law applies to employers whose employees “occasionally, frequently or constantly perform critical tasks outdoors.” Critically, the statute defines these terms precisely:
- “Constantly” means “an employee is performing critical tasks outdoors during at least two-thirds of his or her workday.”
- “Frequently” means “an employee is performing critical tasks outdoors during at least one-third but less than two-thirds of his or her workday.”
- “Occasionally” means “an employee is performing critical tasks outdoors during at least 2 percent but less than one-third of his or her workday.”
The law further defines “outdoors” as “a work environment where an employee moves to different work sites during the work day and is exposed to the elements.”
Key Employer Obligations
Under SB 260, covered employers must take several significant steps to protect their outdoor workforce.
Mitigation and monitoring programs. Employers must establish and implement a written program to mitigate employees’ exposure to poor air quality from wildfire smoke and monitor those employees for signs of health effects caused by such exposure.
Air quality monitoring. Employers must monitor air quality before and as conditions change during each shift of an employee who performs critical tasks outdoors. Monitoring must be conducted by determining the Environmental Protection Agency Air Quality Index value from AirNow for the location where critical tasks are being performed. If AirNow is unavailable, employers may use alternative sources including the U.S. Forest Service, the Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program, the Air Quality Management Division of Northern Nevada Public Health, the Clark County Department of Air Quality Management, the Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Program, or the Bureau of Air Quality Planning of the Nevada Division of Air Quality Planning.
Employee training. Employers must provide training to affected employees in a language and format that is understandable to each employee. Training must cover the requirements of the law, the employer’s mitigation and monitoring program, and the potential hazards of not using personal protection equipment while working outdoors and being exposed to poor air quality from wildfire smoke.
Communications system. Each employer must establish a communications system that informs employees when they are being exposed to air quality where the Air Quality Index (AQI) is 150 or more during their shift, and of the protective controls available to reduce exposure. The system must also allow employees to report when they are exposed to such air quality and to communicate “any symptom related to such exposure, including, without limitation, asthmatic attacks, difficulty breathing or chest pain.”
Regulatory Measures Still to Come
The law directs the administrator of the Division of Industrial Relations of the Department of Business and Industry to establish specific measures employers must take when the AQI is 150 or more but less than 200, and when it is 200 or more. The administrator must also establish an AQI level caused by wildfire smoke at which employers are prohibited from allowing employees to perform critical tasks outdoors altogether. Additionally, the administrator may develop written guidance for employers on establishing compliant programs and may adopt any regulations necessary to carry out the law’s provisions.
Exemptions
Certain employers are exempt from these requirements. The law does not apply to employers that operate a mine, employ commercial truck drivers, provide emergency services (including police, firefighting, rescue, emergency medical services, or other services related to public safety), or have ten or fewer employees.
Next Steps for Employers
Employers may want to identify which employees perform critical tasks outdoors, develop written mitigation and monitoring programs, establish air quality monitoring protocols, create employee training materials in appropriate languages and formats, and implement a two-way communications system for reporting air quality conditions and symptoms.
Ogletree Deakins’ Las Vegas office and Workplace Safety and Health Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Nevada and Workplace Safety and Health blogs as additional information becomes available.
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