The Right-To-Know and the Occupational Health Nurse

Abstract

The field of occupational health and safety is seeing a major shift in the prevention of work-related injuries and illnesses. The passage of right-to-know laws has legislatively joined employees and employers in a partnership of prevention, These laws assign the duty to employers to know what toxic agents they utilize, teach the employee what they are, how they can be harmed, and how to avoid toxic exposures. Implict in the laws is the responsibility of the employee to utilize this knowledge to preventadverse exposure. The development of these laws has come over many years and literally exploded over the last six years, This work was completed with the partial support of a traineeship from the National

Philosophical and Ethical Issues of Occupational Health Nursing Practice

“…In the occupational health field it justifies the right-to-know laws. Implicit in this legislation is the responsibility of the employee to utilize the knowledge about potential hazards to prevent adverse exposure to his health (Van Den Eden, 1985). The promise of right-to-know is that it will help create a situation in which the worker has the information to make that decision (Caldert, 1986).…”

Ethical Dilemmas in Occupational Health Nursing

“…How should this issue be resolved? Issues related to the right to know by the employee regarding exposure to unknown hazardous substances may result in company liability and economic loss (AAOHN, 1984;Engleking, 1986;Reif, 1983;Van Den Eeden, 1985). Many employees have lifethreatening illnesses which may, for health reasons, require counseling and job transfer.…”