Section 277-A:3 Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
I. ""Employee'' means any person who currently works or formerly worked, with or without compensation, in a workplace. The term ""employee'' does not include domestic workers or casual laborers employed at the place of residence of the employer.
II. ""Employee representative'' means an individual or organization to which an employee gives written authorization to exercise his rights under this chapter. A recognized or certified collective bargaining agent shall be considered to be an employee representative without regard to written employee authorization.
III. ""Employer'' means any person, firm, corporation, partnership, association, the state, any political subdivision of the state, or any other entity which is engaged in a business or in providing services and which employs employees in connection with such business or services.
IV. ""Material safety data sheet'' means a written document prepared on a toxic substance containing all of the following information except as provided by RSA 277-A:4, III(c):
(a) The chemical name, generic name, trade name, and any common name of the toxic substance and of each of the component toxic substances contained in any mixture.
(b) The hazards of the substance, including its flammability, explosiveness, and reactivity.
(c) The acute and chronic health effects and risks from exposure.
(d) The potential routes and symptoms of overexposure.
(e) The proper precautions, handling practices, necessary personal protective equipment, and other necessary or beneficial safety precautions.
(f) Emergency procedures for spills, fire, disposal, and first aid.
(g) A description, in nontechnical language, of the specific potential health risks posed by the toxic substance.
(h) The date such information was compiled and the name and address of the manufacturer, producer or formulator responsible for compiling it.
V. ""Toxic substance'' means any radioactive or other substance which is defined as a toxic substance by a rule adopted pursuant to RSA 541-A by the department of health and human services. The department shall define as a toxic substance:
(a) Any substance which appears on any list of toxic or hazardous substances which is included in any of the following:
(1) The United States Department of Transportation's 1980 Emergency Response Guidebook of Hazardous Waste Materials.
(2) TLV's: Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents in the Workroom Environment, published by the American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists.
(3) Title 29, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 1910.1000.
(4) Standards issued under Section 6(b)(5) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
(5) The Director of the Department of Industrial Relations' List of Hazardous Substances, published by the State of California.
(b) Any substance which has yielded positive evidence of acute or chronic health hazards in human, animal or other biological testing which could be applicable to human beings;
(c) Any other substance which the department determines should be so defined consistent with the purposes of this chapter and consistent to the extent possible with the methods and criteria used in compiling the lists of toxic or hazardous substances referred to in subparagraph (a). For the purposes of this chapter, the term ""toxic substance'' shall not include any liquor or beverage, as those terms are defined in RSA 175:1, VIII and XLII, or any other substance which has been packaged for retail sale or which is contained in a product which has been packaged for retail sale; and
(d) Any substance which is combustible, a compressed gas, explosive, flammable, a health hazard, an organic peroxide, an oxidizer, pyrophoric, unstable (reactive) or water reactive as established by the latest edition of the Fire Protection Guide on Hazardous Materials published by the National Fire Protective Association.
VI. ""Trade secret'' means any confidential formula, pattern, device or compilation of information which does all of the following:
(a) Is used in the employer's business.
(b) Gives the employer the opportunity to obtain an advantage over competitors who do not know or use it.
(c) Is known only to the employer and to those employees to whom it is necessary to confide.
VII. ""Workplace'' means any location, permanent or temporary, where an employee performs any work-related duty in the course of his employment.
VIII. ""Commissioner'' means the commissioner of labor.
Source. 1983, 466:1. 1990, 255:10. 1995, 310:175, 181, eff. Nov. 1, 1995.