Title 23, Title 23 and Safety

The state department of health, with the approval of the governor, may incur all necessary expenses for preventing and restricting the prevalence of epidemic diseases and of carrying out the provisions of §§ 23-8-18 and 23-8-19, and the state controller shall draw his or her orde…

Nothing in §§ 23-8-18 — 23-8-20 shall be construed to impair the validity of any rules and regulations made and in force under the provisions of §§ 23-9-1 — 23-9-11, nor to abridge the powers of any officer mentioned in §§ 23-9-1 — 23-9-11; and every officer shall also have power…

If the state director of health, or his or her duly authorized agent, determines, upon investigation, that a threat to the public health exists because any person is suffering, or appears to be suffering, from a communicable disease, the director or his or her authorized agent ma…

For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this chapter, the state department of health is empowered to make examinations of persons reasonably suspected of having a communicable disease; provided, however, that any person so examined shall have the right to have present a…

Any person who is confined by the director or his or her authorized agent under the provision of § 23-8-4 and who violates that confinement shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars ($50.00) or by imprisonment for not more than ninety (90) days, or both.

Each seaport city or town, or the city or town council of each seaport city or town, may appoint a health officer for the city or town who shall visit all vessels which shall be subject to examination of quarantine, and carry into execution all regulations established by the city…

Every sheriff, deputy sheriff, town sergeant, and town constable shall carry the rules and regulations of the city or town council within his or her precinct into effect.

The fines for the violation of any of the provisions of this chapter shall be recovered to the use of the city or town where the offense was committed.

Whenever the United States of America shall put in force a system of national quarantine inspection for the port of Providence, the duties of the quarantine health officer and sentinel of that city shall be suspended for so long a period as the quarantine inspection shall be main…

The commander of a vessel as described in this chapter, on his or her arrival in any of the waters of the state, shall immediately hoist and keep his or her colors in the shrouds of that vessel as a signal that he or she has come from some infected place or has infection or conta…

If any person shall come on shore from on board a vessel as described in this chapter without first obtaining a license, the city or town council may immediately send that offender back on board that vessel, or confine him or her on shore in a convenient place that appears to the…

The city or town council of the city or town where a vessel as described in this chapter arrives shall send a physician or other suitable person to examine and report to them of the true state of that vessel and the people on board, at the charge of the master or owner of that ve…

The city or town council of the city or town where a vessel as described in this chapter arrives shall confine on board that vessel, or send to some hospital or other suitable place, all persons who came in that vessel, for a convenient time, until those of them that have, or are…

The city or town council of a city or town where a vessel as described in this chapter arrives shall appoint suitable persons to take effectual care that all goods, wares, and merchandise imported in that vessel which they think may hold and communicate the infection or contagion…

Whenever infected or contagious goods are sufficiently aired and cleansed, those persons described in § 23-9-18 shall give the owners or persons entitled to possession of those goods a certificate to that effect; and the city or town council shall allow and order those goods, war…

The city or town council shall publish in one or more newspapers published in the state, within or nearest the city or town where the rules and regulations shall be adopted, at the expense of the city or town, all rules and regulations made by it respecting quarantine.

All goods that are judged by the city or town council not to be infected shall be delivered to the owners without delay and expense of airing and as soon as may be consistent with the safety of the city or town; and all goods, wares, and merchandise imported into any city or town…

All goods imported in a vessel as described in this chapter that shall be clandestinely landed or brought into any house, shop, or warehouse without a certificate and allowance as provided in § 23-9-19, or that shall be imported by land as provided in § 23-9-20 and not cleansed o…

The city and town councils of the respective cities and towns shall fix, settle, and adjust all wages and charges demanded by persons employed by them to secure a vessel, or to air and cleanse those goods, or to attend upon and nurse those persons as provided in this chapter.

If any owner, freighter, mariner, or passenger shall refuse to pay those wages and charges settled, adjusted, and fixed pursuant to § 23-9-22, then the city or town shall sue for and recover those wages and charges, and the court where the action is brought and maintained shall t…

The health officer of the city of Newport shall, under the direction of the council of that city, have authority concurrent with the city or town councils of the several cities or towns in the county of Newport bordering on the public waters of the state in all matters arising un…

The city or town council shall prescribe from time to time the several ports, places, or countries from which vessels arriving shall be subject to examination or quarantine.

The city or town council shall designate the particular place in the harbor, bay, or river adjacent to the city or town where all arriving ships or vessels subject to examination or quarantine shall come to anchor; and shall define the limits of the quarantine ground, and assign …

The city or town council may appoint a sentinel, who shall be paid by the city or town and stationed in some convenient place on shore, or in some properly situated boat or vessel, to hail all ships or vessels which may arrive in that river, bay, or harbor; and if the sentinel sh…

Every commander of a ship or vessel who shall, upon being hailed and directed by the sentinel, refuse or neglect to bring his or her ship or vessel to anchor within the limits as described in § 23-9-4, shall be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500) nor less than twenty …

The city or town council may order a ship or vessel to be anchored on the quarantine ground, at the expense of the owners, master, or commanding officer of the ship or vessel, to remain there until legally discharged from the quarantine ground.

Every person who shall leave any ship or vessel under order of quarantine without permission from the health officer or the city or town council of that city or town, shall be fined not exceeding twenty dollars ($20.00); and the city or town council may order that person to be re…

If any vessel shall arrive in the waters of the state bound to the port of Providence at any time while the quarantine regulations of the city of Providence are in force, no person on board that vessel shall leave it until it has been visited and examined by the health officer of…

The superintendent or other person in charge or control of any hospital, school, reformatory, or other institution, deriving the whole or any part of its support from the public funds of the state, having in charge or under its care or custody any person or persons suffering with…

Whenever any physician knows that any person under his or her professional care is affected with tuberculosis, he or she shall transmit to the director of the state department of health within seven (7) days, upon blanks provided by the state department of health for that purpose…

It shall be the duty of the director of health to report to the prosecuting officers of the different cities and towns in this state any violation of the requirements of §§ 23-10-1 and 23-10-2, and it shall be the duty of the prosecuting officers of the several cities and towns t…

It shall be the duty of the state department of health to keep a register of all persons in this state known to be affected with tuberculosis. The state department of health shall have sole, exclusive control of that register and shall not permit its inspection nor disclose any o…

The state department of health shall be authorized to submit reports of cases of tuberculosis which it receives and has on file in its register to city and town health departments and to other community agencies, voluntary and official, properly organized to receive those reports…

(a) For the purposes of this section, a person has active tuberculosis when: (1) a sputum smear or culture taken from a pulmonary, laryngeal, or other source has tested positive for tuberculosis and the person has not completed an appropriate prescribed course of medication for t…

All biological samples or specimens taken from Rhode Island residents for the purpose of performing laboratory culture for tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) or for determining antibiotic sensitivities of cases of tuberculosis, by or under the direction or order of any phy…

When used in this chapter: (1) “Code” means a standard body of rules for safety and health formulated, adopted, and issued by the commission under the provisions of this chapter. (2) “Director” means the director of health or his or her duly authorized representative. (3) “Employ…

It shall be the duty of the director of health to notify the director of labor and training of all violations of this chapter and the director of labor and training shall then request the attorney general to prosecute all violations.

If upon inspection or investigation the director of health finds that an employer has violated any regulation prescribed pursuant to this chapter or has violated any requirements of § 28-20-8, or of any code, rule, or order promulgated pursuant to § 28-20-24, the director shall n…

The director of labor and training shall be responsible for enforcement of the provisions of this chapter in accordance with § 28-20-17.

(a) Any person who gives advance notice of any inspection to be conducted under this chapter, without authority from the director of labor and training, shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment for not more th…

(a) No employer shall discharge or in any manner discriminate against any employee because that employee has filed any complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this chapter or has testified or is about to testify in any proceeding or b…

All information reported to or otherwise obtained by the director in connection with any inspection or proceeding under this chapter which contains or which might reveal a trade secret referred to in § 1905 of title 18 of the United States Code or any amendment of § 1905 of title…

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to repeal or to limit or restrict in any way present state laws, codes, regulations, or orders governing the safety or health of employees in any place of employment which are not in conflict with this chapter.

If any provision of this chapter, or the application of the provision to any person or circumstance, shall be held invalid, the remainder of this chapter, or the application of the provision to persons or circumstances other than those as to which it is held invalid, shall not be…

There shall be a division of occupational health within the department of health which shall have all the powers and duties relating to the administration and enforcement of health codes as prescribed by the provisions of this chapter, and any other duties that may be conferred u…

The director of health shall appoint the chief of the division of occupational health. The appointee shall be in the classified service of the state and shall be responsible to and report to the director. The director shall appoint health compliance inspectors who shall be in the…