1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the reporting of health conditions in the workplace.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. The heading to Chapter 84, Health and Safety
1-5 Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-6 CHAPTER 84. REPORTING OF OCCUPATIONAL CONDITIONS [DISEASES]
1-7 SECTION 2. Sections 84.001-84.003, Health and Safety Code,
1-8 are amended to read as follows:
1-9 Sec. 84.001. SHORT TITLE. This chapter may be cited as the
1-10 Occupational Condition [Disease] Reporting Act.
1-11 Sec. 84.002. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
1-12 (1) "Health professional" means an individual whose:
1-13 (A) vocation or profession is directly or
1-14 indirectly related to the maintenance of health in another
1-15 individual; and
1-16 (B) duties require a specified amount of formal
1-17 education and may require a special examination, a certificate or
1-18 license, or membership in a regional or national association.
1-19 (2) "Occupational condition [disease]" means a
1-20 disease, [or] abnormal health condition, or laboratory finding that
1-21 is caused by or is related to exposures [conditions] in the
1-22 workplace.
1-23 (3) [(2)] "Reportable condition [disease]" means a
1-24 disease, [or] condition, or laboratory finding required to be
2-1 reported under this chapter.
2-2 Sec. 84.003. REPORTABLE CONDITIONS [DISEASES]; RULES. (a)
2-3 Asbestosis and[,] silicosis[, and elevated blood lead levels in
2-4 adults] are occupational conditions [diseases] that are reportable
2-5 to the department.
2-6 (b) Blood lead levels in adults are laboratory findings that
2-7 are reportable to the department as provided by board rule.
2-8 (c) The board may adopt rules that require other
2-9 occupational conditions [diseases] to be reported under this
2-10 chapter. Before the board requires another [other] occupational
2-11 condition [diseases] to be reported, the board must find that the
2-12 condition [disease]:
2-13 (1) has a well-understood etiology;
2-14 (2) results predominantly from occupational exposures
2-15 [conditions]; and
2-16 (3) is preventable.
2-17 (d) [(c)] The board shall maintain a list of reportable
2-18 conditions [diseases].
2-19 (e) [(d)] The board shall adopt rules necessary to
2-20 administer and implement this chapter.
2-21 SECTION 3. Sections 84.004(a) and (b), Health and Safety
2-22 Code, are amended to read as follows:
2-23 (a) The following persons shall report cases or suspected
2-24 cases of reportable conditions [diseases] to the department:
2-25 (1) a physician who diagnoses or treats the individual
2-26 with the condition; [disease; and]
2-27 (2) a person who is in charge of a clinical or
3-1 hospital laboratory, blood bank, mobile unit, or other facility in
3-2 which a laboratory examination of any specimen derived from a human
3-3 body yields microscopical, cultural, serological, or other evidence
3-4 suggestive of the condition; and
3-5 (3) a health professional [disease].
3-6 (b) The department may contact a physician attending a
3-7 person with a case or a suspected case of an occupational condition
3-8 [disease. From information received from laboratory notification,
3-9 the department may not, without the attending physician's consent,
3-10 contact the person from whom the specimen was obtained if the
3-11 notification indicates that the person has an attending physician].
3-12 SECTION 4. Sections 84.005(b) and (c), Health and Safety
3-13 Code, are amended to read as follows:
3-14 (b) The department may seek, receive, and spend any funds
3-15 received through appropriations, grants, or donations from public
3-16 or private sources for the purpose of identifying, reporting, or
3-17 preventing those occupational conditions [diseases] that have been
3-18 determined by the board to be injurious or to be a threat to the
3-19 public health, subject to any limitations or conditions prescribed
3-20 by the legislature.
3-21 (c) Subject to the confidentiality requirements of this
3-22 chapter, the department shall evaluate the reports of occupational
3-23 conditions [diseases] to establish the nature and magnitude of the
3-24 hazards associated with those conditions [diseases], to prevent
3-25 the occurrence of those hazards, and to establish any trends
3-26 involved.
3-27 SECTION 5. Section 84.006(a), Health and Safety Code, is
4-1 amended to read as follows:
4-2 (a) All information and records relating to reportable
4-3 conditions [diseases] are confidential. That information may not
4-4 be released or made public on subpoena or otherwise, except that
4-5 release of information may be made:
4-6 (1) for statistical purposes, but only if a person is
4-7 not identified;
4-8 (2) with the consent of each person identified in the
4-9 information released; or
4-10 (3) to medical personnel in a medical emergency to the
4-11 extent necessary to protect the health or life of the named person.
4-12 SECTION 6. Sections 84.007(a) and (b), Health and Safety
4-13 Code, are amended to read as follows:
4-14 (a) The department shall investigate the causes of
4-15 occupational conditions [diseases] and methods of prevention.
4-16 (b) In performing the commissioner's duty to prevent an
4-17 occupational condition [disease], the commissioner or the
4-18 commissioner's designee may enter at reasonable times and inspect
4-19 within reasonable limits all or any part of an area, structure, or
4-20 conveyance, regardless of ownership, that is not used for private
4-21 residential purposes.
4-22 SECTION 7. Section 4D(b), Texas Structural Pest Control Act
4-23 (Article 135b-6, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read
4-24 as follows:
4-25 (b) The board may make available to the Texas Department of
4-26 Health under the occupational condition [disease] reporting program
4-27 established under Chapter 84, Health and Safety Code, any
5-1 information it receives concerning an exposure to a pesticide
5-2 caused by a licensee that results in a medically verifiable
5-3 illness. The board and the Texas Department of Health shall adopt
5-4 joint rules to govern such a program. These rules shall require
5-5 the board to make the information available to an institution of
5-6 higher education that conducts research in urban entomology,
5-7 epidemiology, or other areas related to structural pest control.
5-8 SECTION 8. The importance of this legislation and the
5-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
5-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
5-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
5-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
5-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
5-14 passage, and it is so enacted.
_______________________________ _______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 2311 was passed by the House on April
11, 1997, by the following vote: Yeas 132, Nays 0, 2 present, not
voting.
_______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 2311 was passed by the Senate on May
10, 1997, by the following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 0.
_______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor