The San Francisco Chronicle on a potential new law for workplace exposure limits in California:
An Assembly leader is pledging a down-to-the-wire fight for legislation that would require the state to adopt worker exposure standards for all known cancer-causing chemicals.
Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Sally Lieber says the measure is needed because a state board responsible for setting industrial safety standards has been guilty of “a reprehensible level of inaction” regarding California workers who are exposed to dangerous chemicals on the job.
The Mountain View Democrat’s measure, which is opposed by a powerful coalition of business groups, has stalled in past sessions, and it now languishes in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. Opponents say it is an overly broad, anti-business measure.
The legislative showdown over the bill, AB515, comes less than a month after The Chronicle published a series describing workers’ angry concerns about cancer-causing chemicals at a chemical plant in the Mojave Desert, Searles Valley Minerals. After the series appeared, several lawmakers, including Lieber, called for the state to investigate the matter.
Click on the above link for more information. The full text of AB515 is available here.
