H. B. 2437
(By Delegates Staton, Mahan and Wills)
[Introduced January 27, 1999; referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section eighteen, article three,
chapter twenty-one of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
hazardous chemical substances; and notice to employees of
hazardous chemical substances and lead exposure.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eighteen, article three, chapter twenty-one of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. SAFETY AND WELFARE OF EMPLOYEES.
§21-3-18. Hazardous chemical substances; notice to employees; notice to employees of lead exposure; reports to commissioner; penalties.
(a) It is declared the policy of this state to require
employers to disclose to employees the hazards of exposure in the
work place to hazardous or toxic chemical substances and
materials. For this purpose, the commissioner of labor shall
establish and maintain, by rule or regulation, a list of chemical
substances and materials which have been determined or are
suspected to be hazardous or toxic to the health of employees who
may be exposed to them in the course of employment. In
establishing and maintaining such list, the commissioner may give
consideration to any list made or hereafter made by the secretary
of labor of the United States identifying or proposing to
identify chemical substances and materials as hazardous or toxic,
or setting standard levels of safe exposure thereto, as the same
are published from time to time in the federal register. The
commissioner shall also establish the reasonable and necessary
steps required to minimize employee exposure to lead under
various levels of exposure. The commissioner shall publish and
update, at least annually, such list of substances and materials
and such lead information and shall include in the publication
thereof, for lead and each listed substance or material, any
standard levels of safe exposure published by said secretary in
the federal register, giving due consideration to any changes
made or proposed by said secretary in the secretary's list of
hazardous or toxic chemical substances and materials, or in any standard levels of safe exposure established or proposed from
time to time by said secretary, as the same are published in the
federal register.
(b) The commissioner shall make copies of such list
prepared under this section available to any employer requesting
the same: Provided, That the commissioner shall limit such list
to no more than six hundred such substances and materials to be
selected from the lists included in 29 Code of Federal
Regulations 1910.1000, Subpart Z, which the commissioner elects
to include because of either frequency of use in the state,
frequency of exposure or over exposure thereof to workers in the
state, the seriousness of the effects of such exposure or other
reason which the commissioner determines to be sufficient.
(c) Any employer of ten or more employees using or
producing any such listed hazardous chemical substance or
material shall conspicuously post a warning notice in the work
area where any such substance or material is used, to read
substantially as follows:
WARNING NOTICE
____________________________________________________________
(Name of hazardous chemical substance or material) is used
at this work site.
Common symptoms of overexposure include the following:
___________________
Name of Employer
Any such notice required to be posted with regard to a
mobile work site may be posted on the container or containers of
the hazardous substance or material or in some other conspicuous
place.
The employer shall include in the notice such common
symptoms of overexposure as (1) may be published with the
standard levels of safe exposure, or (2) certified to the
employer by a physician employed for that purpose. Good faith
reliance upon either such source of information shall be
sufficient notice of such common symptoms.
(d) Any employer whose employees may come in contact with
lead as defined in section three, article twenty-five, chapter
sixteen of this code, shall reasonably investigate the
possibility of lead exposure to employees. Upon a determination
of the presence of lead, the employer shall take all reasonable
and necessary steps to minimize exposure to employees, and the
employer shall conspicuously post a warning notice in the work
area where any lead exposure may occur, to read substantially as
follows:
WARNING NOTICE
____________________________________________________________
Lead has been detected at his work site. There is a
possibility of lead exposure at this work site and all reasonable and necessary steps must be followed to minimize employee
exposure including the following:
___________________
Name of Employer
The commissioner of labor shall provide, at the request of
the employer, the reasonable and necessary steps to minimize
worker exposure to lead for inclusion on the warning notice
above.
Any such notice required to be posted with regard to a
mobile work site may be posted in a conspicuous place where
exposure is possible.
The employer shall comply with all requirements in 29 Code
of Federal Regulations 1910.1025 and the provisions of article
thirty-five, chapter sixteen of this code regarding any known
lead hazard.
(e) Any employer having notice of any incident of exposure
to a listed hazardous chemical substance or material in excess of
its standard level of safe exposure published by the commissioner
or any incident of exposure to lead in excess of the permissible
exposure limit described in 29 Code of Federal Regulations
1910.1025
shall within ten days thereof report to the
commissioner the circumstances of such incident and provide a
copy of the report to the employee.
(f) Any person or corporation that violates the provisions
of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nor
more than one thousand dollars for each violation.
(g) The provisions of this section shall not apply to any
coal mine, coal mining or coal processing plant, and any
agricultural or horticultural activity, and any such mine, plant
or activity is hereby exempted from the provisions of this
section ,except with regard to lead exposure.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require employers to
investigate to possibility of lead exposure to employees and
notify employees of any known lead hazard.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.