New Year, New Leadership, New Bills

Existing law requires the Department of Industrial Relations, by interagency agreement with the State Department of Public Health, to establish a repository of current data on toxic materials and harmful physical agents in use or potentially in use in places of employment in the state. That repository is known as the Hazard Evaluation System and Information Service (HESIS). Existing law requires the HESIS, among other things, to provide information and collect and evaluate data relating to possible hazards to employees resulting from exposure to toxic materials or harmful physical agents. Existing law establishes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Industrial Relations and requires the division to, among other things, monitor, analyze, and propose health and safety standards for workers.

This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to consider a report from a laboratory of an employee’s blood lead level at or above 25 micrograms per deciliter to be injurious to the health of the employee and to report that case within 5 business days to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The bill would further provide that the above-described report would constitute a serious violation and subject the employer or place of employment to an investigation, as provided, by the division, and would require the division to make any citations or fines imposed as a result of the investigation publicly available on an annual basis.