A/HRC/39/48 and other third parties to the detriment of workers’ health and safety. The protection of public health is a legitimate exception to freedom of expression. Criminal sanctions should be available for such misconduct by business enterprises and other actors. Principle 7 — Protecting workers from exposure to toxic substances protects their families, their communities and the environment. 89. Protecting workers from toxic exposures has broader benefits for society. States should recognize the mutually reinforcing nature of protecting workers from occupational exposures to toxic substances and the protection of the environment. Laws and policies to protect human health from hazardous substances should take into account both occupational and environmental exposures, among other factors. States should ensure effective cooperation between authorities with responsibility for labour, public health and the environment. B. Principles regarding information, participation and assembly 90. The rights to information, participation and freedom of expression and association, as well as the rights to unionize and collective bargaining, enable the prevention of violations and abuses of human rights arising from toxic exposures of workers. Furthermore, the full realization of the right to information is necessary to realize the right of workers to an effective remedy for the adverse impacts of such exposures. Principle 8 — Every worker has the right to know, including to know their rights. 91. Every worker has the right to know current information about their actual and potential exposures to toxic and otherwise hazardous substances. Occupational health and safety information must be available and accessible to workers in a form that effectively serves their needs, bearing in mind their skills and circumstances, and communicated through training and other means (A/HRC/30/40). States, employers and business enterprises must efficiently communicate health and safety information, including the results of medical examinations, to workers, trade unions and other workers’ representatives. 92. States are duty-bound to generate, collect, assess and update information on hazards and risks encountered by workers, as well as epidemiological evidence of occupational diseases and disabilities (ibid.). 93. Business enterprises are responsible for identifying and assessing the actual and potential exposure by workers to hazardous substances in their supply chains and resulting from their own activities (ibid.). This includes information on the types of hazardous substances in occupational settings, the intrinsic hazards of such substances and exposure-related data. Chemical suppliers have heightened responsibilities to identify and assess and to communicate information for the protection of workers to workers, employers, other business enterprises and States. 74 94. As well as the right to information about occupational health risks, workers also have the right to be informed of all their rights and the relevant duties and responsibilities of States and business enterprises regarding these rights, and how they can exercise and defend their rights when they are abused or violated. Principle 9 — Health and safety information about toxic substances must never be confidential. 95. States have a duty to ensure that claims that information about toxic substances are confidential business information or trade secrets are legitimate (ibid.). While confidentiality of personal medical histories must be ensured, they must not be used to 74 18 ILO Chemicals Convention.