Wisniewski Bill to Improve Roadway Worker, Environmental Health Advances

WISNIEWSKI BILL TO IMPROVE ROADWAY WORKER, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ADVANCES

Measure Would Prohibit Manufacture, Sale, or Use of Reflective Roadway Glass Beads with High Arsenic Content

(TRENTON) - Legislation Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski sponsored to prohibit the use of reflective glass beads with high arsenic content in state roadway projects was released today by the Assembly Transportation, Public Works, and Independent Authorities Committee.

"Utilizing roadway materials with unusually high arsenic content is socially and environmentally unsound," said Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), chairman of the panel.  "It creates a health hazard for the workers who handle the materials and a contamination hazard for the surrounding environment."

Inorganic arsenic is a hazardous substance, utilized in glass and ceramics manufacturing, which is recognized by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration as a human carcinogen.

Under Wisniewski's bill (A-1035), reflective glass beads - commonly used in roadway paints and road surfaces - that contain more than 75 parts per million inorganic arsenic would be prohibited from being manufactured, sold, offered for sale, or offered for promotional purposes in New Jersey.

It would further prohibit the state Department of Transportation (DOT), the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, and the South Jersey Transportation Authority from utilizing roadway marker paint that has been mixed with high-inorganic arsenic content beads.

"There is no place for a known carcinogen like arsenic on New Jersey's roadways," said Wisniewski.  "Our zeal to protect motorists should not come at the expense of road crews and the environment."

The committee released the measure by a vote of 11-0-1.  It now heads to the Assembly Speaker, who decides if and when to post it for a floor vote.

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