The Right To Know
In the opening pages of Toxic Bodies/Toxic Entanglements, Jody Roberts and Nancy Langston reintroduced me to The Union Carbide Methylisocynate release in Bhopal India in 1984. This incident which I believe was mentioned in Slow Violence, killed thousands of people upon immediate impact and thousands more through the slow violence of contaminated ,water, air and soil in the surrounding communities. In this piece they mentioned how the The Right to Know Legislation came out of this horrific incident, and I was curious to learn more about it.
The Right To Know Legislation is actually very broad and complex among different industries. The best example I found of It pertaining to chemicals was on the website of a Union Workers organization. For example for AFCME union workers I learned that The Right to Know legislation requires by law that each of their employers carry a Material Safety Data Sheets. A Material Safety Data Sheet(MSDS) is a sheet created for all hazardous materials the company produces or imports, and along with each shipment. The employer must also keep an MSDS for each hazardous chemical used in the workplace. “ MSDSs must be readily accessible during each shift to employees when they are in their work area(s)” I wonder how many workers actually know that this data sheet exists and that they the right to read it and check up on it as often as they would like.
Source : https://www.afscme.org/news/publications/workplace-health-and-safety/fact-sheets/right-to-know-laws
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