BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 193|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 193
Author: Monning (D)
Amended: 4/9/13
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 5-2, 4/23/13
AYES: Evans, Corbett, Jackson, Leno, Monning
NOES: Walters, Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Hazard evaluation system and information service
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires, upon written request from the
repository of the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) with
the Department of Public Health (DPH), chemical manufacturers,
formulators, suppliers, distributors, importers, and their
agents to provide the repository with the names and addresses of
their customers, who have purchased certain chemicals, or
commercial product information.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Recognizes that hazardous substances in the workplace in some
forms and concentrations pose potential acute and chronic
health hazards to employees who are exposed to these
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substances.
2. Provides that employers and employees have a right and a need
to know the properties and potential hazards of substances to
which they may be exposed, and such knowledge is essential to
reducing the incidence and cost of occupational disease.
Further, existing law recognizes that employers do not always
have available adequate data on the contents and properties
of specific hazardous substances necessary for the provision
of a safe and healthful workplace.
3. Ensures the transmission of necessary information to
employees regarding the properties and potential hazards of
hazardous substances in the workplace.
4. Requires the DIR, by interagency agreement with the
Department of Health Services (DHS), to establish a
repository of current data on toxic materials and harmful
physical agents in use or potentially in use in workplaces.
5. Requires the DPH to maintain a program, known as the Hazard
Evaluation System and Information Service (HESIS), on
occupational health and occupational disease prevention.
6. Requires DIR and DHS to provide reliable information of
practical use to employers, employees, representatives of
employees, and other governmental agencies on the possible
hazards to employees of exposure to toxic materials or
harmful physical agents. Existing case law settled the
authority of HESIS, on behalf of DHS, to issue hazard alerts
and fact sheets to the public.
7. The California Public Records Act, governs the disclosure of
information collected and maintained by public agencies.
Generally, all public records are accessible to the public
upon request, unless the record requested is exempt from
public disclosure.
This bill:
1. Requires that for every product whose final destination may
be a place of employment within the state, chemical
manufacturers, formulators, suppliers, distributors,
importers, and their agents, upon written request by the
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repository, to provide the names and addresses of customers
who have purchased certain chemicals, as specified by the
repository, or commercial products containing those chemicals
and information related to those shipments, including the
quantity and dates of shipments, and the proportion of a
specified chemical within a mixture containing the specified
chemical.
2. Requires, on or after January 1, 2015, the information
requested by the repository to include current and past
customers for not more than a one-year period prior to the
date the request is received; requires the information to be
provided within a reasonable timeframe as determined by DPH,
not to exceed 30 calendar days from the date the request is
received; and requires the information to be provided in a
format specified by DPH but consistent with the responding
entity's current data system.
3. Authorizes DPH to seek reimbursement for attorney's fees and
costs incurred in seeking an injunction to enforce these
provisions.
4. Does not apply to a retail seller if the sale of the chemical
or mixture is in the same form, approximate amount,
concentration, and manner as the chemical or mixture is sold
to the general public.
5. Does not require employers, other than chemical
manufacturers, formulators, suppliers, distributors,
importers, and their agents, to report any information not
otherwise required by law.
6. Makes conforming changes to reflect the recent reorganization
of DPH.
7. Exempts from disclosure, under the California Public Records
Act, the customer lists of chemical manufacturers,
formulators, suppliers, distributors, importers, and their
agents that are required to be provided pursuant to the
repository's request; and authorizes disclosure of customer
lists only to officers or employees of the state not
affiliated with the repository who are responsible for
carrying out the purposes of the California Occupational
Safety and Health Act of 1973, the Division of Occupational
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Safety and Health Administration, and the Secretary of Food
and Agriculture.
Background
In 1973, the Legislature enacted the California Occupational
Safety and Health Act for the purpose of assuring safe and
healthful working conditions. In furtherance of this purpose,
the Legislature subsequently established comprehensive statutory
mandates requiring DIR and DPH to safeguard the health and
safety of California workers. One such mandate requires DIR and
DPH to maintain a repository, that collects and maintains data
on toxic materials and harmful physical agents in use or
potentially in use in workplaces. HESIS, a DPH program,
utilizes the information collected by the repository to evaluate
potential hazards to human health and provides information about
possible health hazards that may be caused by exposure to toxic
materials. HESIS also issues early warnings to various
industries concerning potential workplace hazards.
The current strategy used by HESIS when mailing out hazard
alerts is to identify each business likely to use the targeted
chemical by searching commercial databases using standard
industry codes. For example, after participating in a workplace
fatality investigation last year, HESIS mailed out a hazard
alert on the use of methylene chloride-containing paint
strippers. To identify employees potentially exposed to the
potential hazard of these paint strippers, HESIS searched the
commercial databases for businesses classified as furniture
refinishers, furniture strippers, or bathtub refinishers.
Additionally, the Occupational Health Branch (OHB) (of which
HESIS is a part) maintains a database of businesses,
contractors, unions, and advocacy groups. That database is of
limited use in directed hazard alert mailings since a search for
potential users of toxic materials is based upon the likely
relevance of the businesses, contractors, unions, and advocacy
groups to the toxic material.
In its Summer 2004 Occupational Health Watch publication,
indicated that "[a]lthough businesses are required to submit
hazardous materials inventories to local agencies, these data
are not computerized, easily accessed, nor compiled on a
statewide basis. Direct requests to manufacturers and importers
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to voluntarily submit their client lists for the test chemicals
was unsuccessful. Requiring client lists of hazardous
chemicals, or making inventory data available on a statewide
basis, would help ensure that workers and employers receive OHB
alerts in a manner timely enough to keep workers health." (Cal.
Dept. of Health Services, Occupational Health Branch,
Occupational Health Watch (Summer 2004)
[as of
Aug. 10, 2013], p. 5.)
Prior legislation
AB 816 (Lieber, 2005), would have required chemical
manufacturers and importers to provide HESIS the names and
addresses of businesses to which they sold their products. The
bill is substantially similar to the enrolled version of AB 816
(Lieber, 2005). In vetoing AB 816, Governor Schwarzenegger
stated:
This bill is unnecessary and an invasion of privacy.
Employers are currently required to notify their workers
about health hazards and to provide a safe and healthy
workplace. Other protective measures that ensure worker
safety include the Business Plan Hazardous Materials
Inventories; the Air Toxics Program; CalSites Database,
Unidocs Hazardous Materials Online Inventory Database; and
the Wastewater Pretreatment and Pollution Prevention Plans.
Employers must also inform their employees of the
availability of material safety data sheets (MSDS) relating
to any chemical to which the employee may be exposed.
Further, employers routinely undergo Division of
Occupational Safety and Health inspections to ensure that
MSDS documents are available for employees.
Assembly Bill 816 imposes an unreasonable, labor intensive
and duplicative reporting requirement when there are
existing programs and standards in place to ensure that
employees are protected from hazardous chemical exposure.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/3/13)
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American Sustainable Business Council
Breast Cancer Fund
California Conference of Machinists
California Conference of the Amalgamated Transit Union
California Health Nail Salon Collaborative
California Labor Federation
California Nurses Association
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
California State Association of Occupational Health Nurses
California Teamsters Public Affairs Council
Californians for a Healthy and Green Economy
Central Coast School Food Alliance
Clean Water Action California
Consumer Attorneys of California
Engineers & Scientists of California, IFPTE Local 20
International Longshore & Warehouse Union
Mujeres Unidas y Activas
National Lawyers Guild Labor and Employment Committee
Occupational Health and Safety Section of the American Public
Health Association
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Professional and Technical Engineers, IFPTE Local 21
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council
UNITE-HERE, AFL-CIO
Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO
Western Occupational & Environmental Medical Association
Worksafe
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/3/13)
American Chemistry Council
American Coatings Association
California Chamber of Commerce
California League of Food Processors
California Manufacturers and Technology Association
California Paint Council
Chemical Industry Council of California
Consumer Specialty Products Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, in
the absence of a robust federal policy on chemicals, California
has confronted a number of difficulties when responding to the
release of chemical hazards in recent years. Too often, the
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public is provided protections only after damaging effects to
workers' health have become pervasive. Finding information
concerning new, unregulated chemicals, such as certain solvents,
is often very difficult to track when they are used in many
different settings. When it has been able to obtain the
necessary information, [the Hazardous Evaluation System and
Information Service (HESIS)] has provided early warnings to
various industries concerning prospective hazards, such as
alerts on chemicals posing reproductive hazards.
This bill requires chemical manufacturers, suppliers,
distributors, importers and their agents, when requested to do
so by [HESIS] maintained jointly at DIR and the DPH, and under
conditions of confidentiality, to provide the names and
addresses of their customers who have purchased chemicals or
products containing those chemicals, and their proportions, to
the repository maintained by the HESIS.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : An opposition coalition argues that
"[p]resuming this bill becomes law, [the Department of
Industrial Relations] DIR could theoretically on January 1, 2014
issue requests to thousands of businesses requesting customer
information on thousands of chemicals without any clear
indication as to how this information would be used and to what
extent the information will help address a potential public
health threat in the workplace?.Depending upon the products in
question and industries targeted, this bill could result in an
enormous cascade of information and data that could easily
overwhelm DIR, raising the question of how DIR could put this
information to meaningful use in actually enhancing workplace
safety." The opposition coalition also raises concerns about
ensuring the protection of sensitive information, and asserts
that DIR should only be granted access to customer lists through
a clearly defined process and under very specific circumstances.
AL:d 5/7/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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