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The Right To Know In The Workplace*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Ruth R. Faden  and
Tom L. Beauchamp
Ruth R. Faden
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
Tom L. Beauchamp
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
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Extract

In recent years, the right of employees to know about health hazards in the workplace has emerged as a major issue in occupational health policy. A general consensus has gradually evolved that there is a right to know, and correlatively that there is a moral obligation to disclose relevant information to workers. For example, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and several other U.S. federal agencies, informed the U.S. Senate as early as July 1977 that ‘workers have the right to know whether or not they are exposed to hazardous chemical and physical agents regulated by the Federal Government.’ In 1980, the Occupational Safety and Health Adminstration (OSHA) promulgated regulations guaranteeing workers access to medical and exposure records.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume , Volume 8: New Essays in Ethics and Public Policy , 1982 , pp. 177 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1982

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Footnotes

*

Copyright 1982, Ruth R. Faden and Tom L. Beauchamp. Work on this essay was supported by a grant from the National Library of Medicine. Earlier drafts were read at the Philosophy Department, University of Pittsburgh, at the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, at the Hastings Center, and at the Philosophy Department, the University of Colorado. We received valuable comments that altered the substance and form of the paper from Stephen Teret and Nancy King. We are also indebted to Alasdair Macintyre, Terry Pinkard, Ron Giere, Arthur Caplan, Rachel Laudan, Kurt Baier, Nicholas Rescher, David Braybrooke, H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Gilbert Omenn, and Deborah Kohrman for helpful comments and criticism. Small excerpts taken from a much earlier draft of Sections I, Ill, V, VI and IX were previously published in Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, 2nd ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1982). While the bulk of references are to U.S. sources, the issues of policy surpass national boundaries.

References

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