Workers' Compensation: Hidden Hazards at Work

The chemicals you work with every day might be poisoning you—and their identities are legally hidden. Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), thousands of industrial chemicals remain shrouded in confidentiality, making it nearly impossible for workers to know what they're being exposed to and extremely difficult to prove workers' compensation claims when illness strikes.

The Scope of the Problem

As of July 2025, the TSCA Inventory lists 86,862 chemicals, of which 42,578 are marked as active and in commercial use. But here's the alarming reality: a significant portion of these chemicals are classified as Confidential Business Information (CBI). Workers handling these substances often have no idea which toxic compounds they're actually exposed to because the chemical names are masked by generic descriptions such as "alkyl compound" or "proprietary polymer."

This lack of transparency isn't just an inconvenience—it's a direct threat to worker health and safety, and it creates nearly insurmountable barriers when filing workers' compensation claims for chemical exposure injuries.

TSCA Reform: Progress and Setbacks

The 2016 Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act brought significant reforms to TSCA's confidentiality provisions. The amendments established a 10-year cap on CBI protection and required the EPA to review thousands of existing confidentiality claims. The initial 10-year period for many chemicals is set to expire in June 2026.

However, the EPA has struggled to meet its review deadlines. The agency extended its review period multiple times—first to February 2025, then to February 2026—citing insufficient resources, IT issues, and administrative delays. As of 2025, the EPA is still working through a massive backlog of confidentiality claims.

Meanwhile, political shifts continue to impact TSCA implementation. The second Trump administration has signaled intentions to reconsider Biden-era rules that strengthened chemical safety protections. Congressional Republicans are also considering TSCA amendments that environmental advocates warn could weaken transparency requirements and flood the market with chemicals of unknown risk.

The Workers' Compensation Connection

When workers develop illnesses from chemical exposure, they face a critical problem: proving their claim. Workers' compensation claims for chemical exposure require establishing a clear link between workplace exposure and the resulting illness. But how can you prove exposure to a specific chemical when you don't even know its identity?

Documentation Challenges

To successfully file a workers' compensation claim for chemical exposure, injured workers typically need:

Medical records linking symptoms to specific chemical exposure
Safety Data Sheets (SDS) identifying the hazardous substances
Witness statements confirming exposure circumstances
Expert medical testimony establishing causation

When chemical identities are protected as CBI, these requirements become nearly impossible to satisfy. Without knowing the specific chemical involved, physicians cannot accurately diagnose exposure-related illnesses, toxicologists cannot provide expert opinions, and workers cannot demonstrate the causal connection required for compensation.

Common Chemical Exposure Injuries

Workers across numerous industries face chemical exposure risks:

Immediate injuries include chemical burns, respiratory distress, skin irritation, eye damage, and acute poisoning.
Long-term conditions from chronic exposure include various cancers (particularly from benzene, asbestos, and formaldehyde), neurological disorders (from mercury, lead, and certain solvents), liver and kidney damage, respiratory diseases like asbestosis and silicosis, and reproductive harm.
Industries with the highest exposure risks include manufacturing and chemical plants, construction, mining, agriculture, healthcare facilities, janitorial and maintenance services, and automotive repair.

The Path Forward for Injured Workers

If you believe you've been injured by chemical exposure at work, take these critical steps immediately:

1. Seek immediate medical attention. Tell your healthcare provider that your condition may be work-related. Request copies of all medical records.
2. Report the exposure promptly. Most states have strict deadlines for reporting workplace injuries—often as short as 14-45 days. Document everything in writing.
3. Gather all available chemical information. Obtain SDS sheets, product labels, work orders, and any documentation about the chemicals you handled. Even generic chemical descriptions are better than nothing.
4. Document witnesses. Get names and contact information for co-workers who can verify your exposure circumstances.
5. Consult a workers' compensation attorney. Chemical exposure claims are complex. An experienced attorney can help navigate the documentation requirements, obtain expert medical testimony, and challenge inadequate chemical disclosure.
6. Consider third-party claims. While workers' compensation is typically the exclusive remedy against your employer, you may have additional claims against chemical manufacturers who failed to adequately disclose hazards, especially if CBI protections prevented proper warning labels.

Advocacy and Reform

Worker advocacy groups and environmental organizations continue pressing for greater chemical transparency. Recent proposals include:

Imposing sunset provisions on CBI claims
Requiring periodic re-justification of confidentiality
Creating exceptions for health and safety information
Ensuring workers and physicians can access chemical identities when investigating occupational illnesses
Strengthening right-to-know provisions

The tension between protecting business trade secrets and safeguarding worker health remains unresolved. Until meaningful reform occurs, workers will continue facing the impossible task of proving illness from chemicals they're not allowed to identify.

Key Takeaways for Workers

Know your rights. You are entitled to workers' compensation for occupational illnesses, even if your employer took safety precautions. Workers' compensation is a no-fault system.
Document obsessively. Keep detailed records of all chemical exposures, even those that seem minor. Future claims may depend on this documentation.
Act quickly. Strict reporting deadlines apply. Don't wait for symptoms to worsen before reporting potential exposure.
Get legal help. The complexity of chemical exposure claims—especially those involving CBI protections—makes professional legal assistance essential.
Don't give up. Even when chemical identities are protected, skilled attorneys and medical experts can often build successful claims using circumstantial evidence, workplace air-monitoring data, and comparative analyses of similar facilities.

Resources

EPA TSCA Confidential Business Information: https://www.epa.gov/tsca-cbi

EPA TSCA Inventory: Access through EPA's Substance Registry Services

OSHA Chemical Hazards Information: https://www.osha.gov/chemicaldata

*Jon L. Gelman of Wayne, NJ, is the author of NJ Workers' Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise Modern Workers' Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters).

Blog: Workers' Compensation

LinkedIn: JonGelman

LinkedIn Group: Injured Workers Law & Advocacy Group

Author: "Workers' Compensation Law" West-Thomson-Reuters

Mastodon:@gelman@mstdn.social

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