Word: toxically
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...such bills are currently before the Massachusetts legislature, but only one of them merits passage. The first measure, introduced this spring by a coalition of environmental and labor groups, requires employers to label all toxic substances in the workplace and provide information about these chemicals to employees and community members. That bill won Senate approval, but is currently stalled in the House while moderates try to hammer out a compromise with industry, which predictably opposes the legislation. Faced with growing support for such measures, however, industry proponents figured some legislation was inevitable, and introduced a watered-down version...
...original bill designates as hazardous 50,000 chemicals on a list of toxic substances issued by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. In addition to labeling these chemicals, employers would have to sponsor annual teach-ins for workers about the health risks related to the materials and offer similar information to local citizen on request. But industry representatives charge the law would be expensive and unwieldy to implement. Alternately, they have proposed using a smaller list, that includes only 400 toxic materials, and providing information only to workers, not community members...
Labor and environmental leaders rightly reject these alterations. They say that the 400 most hazardous substances form only the tip of a toxic ice burg. They claim the proposed legislation is not unreasonable since employers would only have to supply standard information on hazardous chemicals--information that is already required by the federal government and often provided by chemical companies to firms that use their products. Furthermore, advocates of the more stringent bill argue that the law will not be unduly expensive to regulate since it only mandates enforcement in response to a complaint...
More important, the proposed law does not require that businesses stop using toxic materials, simply that it alert employees to their presence in the workplace...
WHAT REALLY CONCERNS employees and chemical companies is that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. As citizens realize the extent to which they are exposed to hazardous materials and the medical dangers of this exposure, pressure will undoubtedly mount for stricter regulation of toxic chemicals. The implicit, if not the stated, aim of the Right to Know legislation is not knowledge for knowledge's sake, but the power to mandate a safe work environment. Simply knowing that the chemicals he handles each day are carcinogens is no great boon to a worker who cannot afford to leave...