Exposure records

• Employees may access any employer records of exposure to a toxic substance. If such records are not available for that employee, the employer must provide records from other employees (with personal identifying information removed) who are likely to have had similar exposures.
• Employees may also access records that indicate the likely exposure they might reasonably experience when being assigned or transferred to a new area or task in the workplace.

Exposure records must reasonably indicate the identity, amount, and nature of the toxic substances or harmful physical agents to which the employee has been exposed.

Employees may access any employee exposure records that show the measuring or monitoring of their own exposure to a toxic substance or harmful physical agent.

If the employer does not have any records that specifically chart an employee’s exposure levels, the employer must provide records of other employees (with personal identifiers removed) whose job duties or working conditions reasonably indicate the amount and nature of exposures the requesting employee may have had. Access to these records does not require the written consent of the other employees.

Employers also may be required to supply exposure records that reasonably indicate the amount and nature of toxic substances or harmful physical agents at a particular workplace, or used in a specific working condition, to which the requesting employee is being assigned or transferred.

Employee exposure records include the following:

• Monitoring results of workplace air or measurements of toxic substances or harmful physical agents in the workplace, including personal, area, grab, wipe, or other forms of sampling results.
• Biological monitoring results, such as blood and urine test results.
• Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) containing information about a substance’s hazards to human health.

Union representatives have to indicate an occupational health need for requested records if they do not have written authorization of the employee(s) involved.