HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	200
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

REQUESTING the Legislative Reference Bureau to survey whether and how workers' compensation laws in other states are used to cover employee disabilities CAUSED BY multiple chemical sensitivities.

     WHEREAS, although no consensus has been reached for a case definition of "multiple chemical sensitivities", according to the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the term, also known as "20th Century Syndrome", "environmental illness", "sick building syndrome", idiopathic environmental intolerance, and TILT (toxicant-induced loss of tolerance), can be defined as a chronic, recurring disease caused by a person's inability to tolerate an environmental chemical or class of foreign chemicals; and

     WHEREAS, multiple chemical sensitivities has been described as a group of sensitivities to extraordinarily low levels of environmental chemicals appearing to develop in some individuals without prior history following acute or chronic exposure to a wide variety of environmental agents including various pesticides, solvents, drugs, and air contaminants in so-called sick buildings; and

     WHEREAS, some researchers contend that the term multiple chemical sensitivities refer to complaints of patients who report recurrent nonspecific symptoms referable to multiple organ systems that the sufferers believe are provoked by exposure to low levels of chemical, biological, or physical agents, yet other researchers have found no consistent physical findings or laboratory abnormalities to differentiate multiple chemical sensitivities patients from the remainder of the population; and

     WHEREAS, while some researchers espouse various theories as to the causes of multiple chemical sensitivities, other researchers either doubt the existence of the disease as there is little concrete evidence to support it, or suspect a psychosomatic cause; and

     WHEREAS, it is in the interest of the State of Hawaii to protect its workers who suffer from multiple chemical sensitivities; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2007, that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to survey whether and how workers' compensation laws in other states are used to cover employee disabilities caused by multiple chemical sensitivities; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference Bureau is further requested to develop a workable model by which the State can cover disabilities caused by multiple chemical sensitivities through the State's workers' compensation law; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations is requested to provide assistance to the Legislative Reference Bureau, if requested; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to submit its findings and recommendations, including any necessary proposed legislation, to the Legislature not later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2008; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau and the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity; Workers' Compensation; LRB Study