1-1 By: Van de Putte (Senate Sponsor - Truan) H.B. No. 2311
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 14, 1997;
1-3 April 16, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on Health
1-4 and Human Services; May 1, 1997, reported favorably by the
1-5 following vote: Yeas 11, Nays 0; May 1, 1997, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to the reporting of health conditions in the workplace.
1-9 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10 SECTION 1. The heading to Chapter 84, Health and Safety
1-11 Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-12 CHAPTER 84. REPORTING OF OCCUPATIONAL CONDITIONS [DISEASES]
1-13 SECTION 2. Sections 84.001-84.003, Health and Safety Code,
1-14 are amended to read as follows:
1-15 Sec. 84.001. SHORT TITLE. This chapter may be cited as the
1-16 Occupational Condition [Disease] Reporting Act.
1-17 Sec. 84.002. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
1-18 (1) "Health professional" means an individual whose:
1-19 (A) vocation or profession is directly or
1-20 indirectly related to the maintenance of health in another
1-21 individual; and
1-22 (B) duties require a specified amount of formal
1-23 education and may require a special examination, a certificate or
1-24 license, or membership in a regional or national association.
1-25 (2) "Occupational condition [disease]" means a
1-26 disease, [or] abnormal health condition, or laboratory finding that
1-27 is caused by or is related to exposures [conditions] in the
1-28 workplace.
1-29 (3) [(2)] "Reportable condition [disease]" means a
1-30 disease, [or] condition, or laboratory finding required to be
1-31 reported under this chapter.
1-32 Sec. 84.003. REPORTABLE CONDITIONS [DISEASES]; RULES. (a)
1-33 Asbestosis and[,] silicosis[, and elevated blood lead levels in
1-34 adults] are occupational conditions [diseases] that are reportable
1-35 to the department.
1-36 (b) Blood lead levels in adults are laboratory findings that
1-37 are reportable to the department as provided by board rule.
1-38 (c) The board may adopt rules that require other
1-39 occupational conditions [diseases] to be reported under this
1-40 chapter. Before the board requires another [other] occupational
1-41 condition [diseases] to be reported, the board must find that the
1-42 condition [disease]:
1-43 (1) has a well-understood etiology;
1-44 (2) results predominantly from occupational exposures
1-45 [conditions]; and
1-46 (3) is preventable.
1-47 (d) [(c)] The board shall maintain a list of reportable
1-48 conditions [diseases].
1-49 (e) [(d)] The board shall adopt rules necessary to
1-50 administer and implement this chapter.
1-51 SECTION 3. Sections 84.004(a) and (b), Health and Safety
1-52 Code, are amended to read as follows:
1-53 (a) The following persons shall report cases or suspected
1-54 cases of reportable conditions [diseases] to the department:
1-55 (1) a physician who diagnoses or treats the individual
1-56 with the condition; [disease; and]
1-57 (2) a person who is in charge of a clinical or
1-58 hospital laboratory, blood bank, mobile unit, or other facility in
1-59 which a laboratory examination of any specimen derived from a human
1-60 body yields microscopical, cultural, serological, or other evidence
1-61 suggestive of the condition; and
1-62 (3) a health professional [disease].
1-63 (b) The department may contact a physician attending a
1-64 person with a case or a suspected case of an occupational condition
2-1 [disease. From information received from laboratory notification,
2-2 the department may not, without the attending physician's consent,
2-3 contact the person from whom the specimen was obtained if the
2-4 notification indicates that the person has an attending physician].
2-5 SECTION 4. Sections 84.005(b) and (c), Health and Safety
2-6 Code, are amended to read as follows:
2-7 (b) The department may seek, receive, and spend any funds
2-8 received through appropriations, grants, or donations from public
2-9 or private sources for the purpose of identifying, reporting, or
2-10 preventing those occupational conditions [diseases] that have been
2-11 determined by the board to be injurious or to be a threat to the
2-12 public health, subject to any limitations or conditions prescribed
2-13 by the legislature.
2-14 (c) Subject to the confidentiality requirements of this
2-15 chapter, the department shall evaluate the reports of occupational
2-16 conditions [diseases] to establish the nature and magnitude of the
2-17 hazards associated with those conditions [diseases], to prevent
2-18 the occurrence of those hazards, and to establish any trends
2-19 involved.
2-20 SECTION 5. Section 84.006(a), Health and Safety Code, is
2-21 amended to read as follows:
2-22 (a) All information and records relating to reportable
2-23 conditions [diseases] are confidential. That information may not
2-24 be released or made public on subpoena or otherwise, except that
2-25 release of information may be made:
2-26 (1) for statistical purposes, but only if a person is
2-27 not identified;
2-28 (2) with the consent of each person identified in the
2-29 information released; or
2-30 (3) to medical personnel in a medical emergency to the
2-31 extent necessary to protect the health or life of the named person.
2-32 SECTION 6. Sections 84.007(a) and (b), Health and Safety
2-33 Code, are amended to read as follows:
2-34 (a) The department shall investigate the causes of
2-35 occupational conditions [diseases] and methods of prevention.
2-36 (b) In performing the commissioner's duty to prevent an
2-37 occupational condition [disease], the commissioner or the
2-38 commissioner's designee may enter at reasonable times and inspect
2-39 within reasonable limits all or any part of an area, structure, or
2-40 conveyance, regardless of ownership, that is not used for private
2-41 residential purposes.
2-42 SECTION 7. Section 4D(b), Texas Structural Pest Control Act
2-43 (Article 135b-6, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read
2-44 as follows:
2-45 (b) The board may make available to the Texas Department of
2-46 Health under the occupational condition [disease] reporting program
2-47 established under Chapter 84, Health and Safety Code, any
2-48 information it receives concerning an exposure to a pesticide
2-49 caused by a licensee that results in a medically verifiable
2-50 illness. The board and the Texas Department of Health shall adopt
2-51 joint rules to govern such a program. These rules shall require
2-52 the board to make the information available to an institution of
2-53 higher education that conducts research in urban entomology,
2-54 epidemiology, or other areas related to structural pest control.
2-55 SECTION 8. The importance of this legislation and the
2-56 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-57 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-58 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-59 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-60 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-61 passage, and it is so enacted.
2-62 * * * * *