Bill Text: CA AB553 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Employment safety: hazardous materials.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-02-01 - Died pursuant to Art. IV, Sec. 10(c) of the Constitution. From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB553 Detail]
Download: California-2011-AB553-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 553 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Monning
FEBRUARY 16, 2011
An act to add Section 144.8 to the Labor Code, relating to
employment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 553, as introduced, Monning. Employment safety: hazardous
materials.
Existing law authorizes the Division of Occupational Safety and
Health within the Department of Industrial Relations to enforce
occupational safety and health standards, including evaluating,
investigating, and monitoring environmental or health conditions that
may be harmful to the health of employees. In so doing, it enforces
the standards promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health
Standards Board within the department dealing with toxic materials
and harmful physical agents and bloodborne pathogens.
This bill would declare the findings of the Legislature regarding
the rights of workers to be protected from exposure to hazardous
substances and toxic materials in the workplace.
This bill would require that the board, in promulgating standards
dealing with certain toxic materials in the workplace, establish
permissible exposure limits that meet specified criteria, with an
emphasis on obtaining the highest degree of health and safety
protection.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Hazardous substances and toxic materials in the workplace can
cause cancer and reproductive, developmental, and other serious
physical harm to workers and their children.
(b) Workers have a right to be adequately protected from hazardous
substances and toxic materials that cause cancer and reproductive,
developmental, and other serious physical harm, especially since
these health effects may not develop for years after exposure and can
permanently impact workers' ability to produce and raise healthy
children.
(c) In order to best protect workers, it is the intent of the
Legislature that the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board,
in the process of regulating hazardous substances and toxic
materials, act expeditiously and efficiently, avoiding duplication of
efforts, by utilizing actions taken by other California and national
regulatory and research agencies, to protect workers against the
effects of those substances that may cause cancer and reproductive,
developmental, or other serious physical harm.
SEC. 2. Section 144.8 is added to the Labor Code, to read:
144.8. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following
definitions apply:
(1) "Health-based occupational exposure limit" and "health-based
OEL" mean the level of an airborne contaminant in the workplace that
is not anticipated to cause or contribute to reproductive,
developmental, or other serious physical harm as defined in Section
6432, or pose a significant risk of cancer to any employee who has
regular exposure to the contaminant for the period of his or her
working life, and is based on a quantitative risk assessment prepared
or published by any of the following agencies:
(A) The California Environmental Protection Agency.
(B) The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
(C) The United States Environmental Protection Agency.
(D) The National Toxicology Program Center for the Evaluation of
Risks to Human Reproduction.
(2) "Permissible exposure limit" and "PEL" have the same meaning
as defined in Section 5155 of Title 8 of the California Code of
Regulations.
(b) (1) In promulgating standards dealing with toxic materials for
which a quantitative risk assessment exists as prepared by any of
the agencies set forth in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a), and for
which a PEL is proposed to be adopted, the board shall set the PEL at
a level that corresponds with a health-based OEL to the extent
feasible as set forth in paragraph (5). The health-based OEL shall be
calculated, as set forth in paragraph (3), from the lowest
quantitative risk assessment that addresses cancer or reproductive,
developmental, or other serious physical harm. There is a rebuttable
presumption that any PEL adopted pursuant to this subdivision shall
be the same as the calculated health-based OEL unless it is not
feasible, as set forth in paragraph (5).
(2) In setting the level of the PEL, the board shall comply with
Section 144.6 and place primary emphasis on attainment of the highest
degree of health and safety protection. For carcinogens, the PEL
shall ensure that there is no significant risk to employee health, in
accordance with paragraph (5). For toxicants that cause or
contribute to reproductive, developmental, or serious physical harm,
the PEL shall be at a level at which no harm occurs.
(3) When calculating the health-based OEL for any hazardous
substance or toxic material pursuant to paragraph (1), adjustments
shall be made to reflect a standard work week over a working life
period of 40 years.
(4) For a hazardous substance or toxic material that is a
carcinogen, a level that does not pose any significant risk to
employee health shall not be less protective than the level that
would result in cancer in one employee per 100,000 employees exposed
to the carcinogen over a working lifetime. For other hazardous
substances or toxic materials, adjustments shall be made, utilizing
appropriate safety factors, to establish a level that does not cause
or contribute to reproductive, developmental, or other serious
physical harm.
(5) For the purposes of determining feasibility as set forth in
Section 144.6 and paragraph (1) of this section, including the
ability to measure workplace exposures at the proposed PEL and
whether there is a way to achieve compliance with that PEL, the board
shall consider the most cost-effective available approach.
Feasibility shall include initially evaluating whether an employer
may achieve compliance through the substitution of an identified
safer alternative, including whether or not that identified safer
substitute can be used in the production process. If no safer
alternative exists, the board may consider a reasonable phase-in
period to achieve the PEL. If no safer alternative exists or is
likely to exist within a reasonable period of time, the board shall
determine feasibility for the industries affected by the PEL by
evaluating whether a change in administrative practices or
engineering controls, as defined in Title 8 of the California Code of
Regulations, including developing technology, is technologically
feasible and, if necessary, whether supplemental respiratory
protection may achieve the PEL.
(6) Calculations and recommendations made pursuant to this
subdivision are not subject to the requirements of Chapter 3.5
(commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.
(c) If the board, based on feasibility, adopts a PEL pursuant to
subdivision (b) that is less protective than the health-based OEL,
the board shall do both of the following:
(1) Make findings of fact regarding feasibility as set forth in
paragraph (5) of subdivision (b), citing the evidence for its
findings. The board shall give more weight to evidence based on
independently verified quantitative exposure monitoring data,
analysis of safer substitutes, and availability of engineering
controls that can reduce exposures than to evidence that is not
independently verified.
(2) Identify the degree of excess cancer risk and risk of
reproductive, developmental, or serious physical harm for the PEL
compared to the health-based OEL.
