(a) If a person or business believes that any information required to be reported or disclosed by this Article involves the release of a trade secret, the person or business shall provide the information to the Department and shall notify the Department in writing of that belief. The Department shall not disclose any properly substantiated trade secret which is so designated by a person or business except in accordance with this Section and Section 25511 of the Health and Safety Code.
(b) Information certified by appropriate officials of the United States, as necessarily kept secret for national defense purposes, shall be accorded the full protection against disclosure as specified by such official or in accordance with the laws of the United States.
(c) The location of explosives stored by the San Francisco Police Department and other law enforcement or government agencies shall not be disclosed.
(d) Information designated as a trade secret may be disclosed to:
(1) An officer or employee of the City and County of San Francisco, the State of California or the United States of America, for use in connection with the official duties of such officer or employee acting under authority of law for the protection of health;
(2) Persons or businesses contracting with the City and County and their employees if, in the opinion of the Director of Health, such disclosure is necessary and required for the satisfactory performance of the work to be done under the contract or to protect the health and safety of the employees of the contractor;
(3) Any physician where the physician certifies in writing to the Director of Health that such information is necessary to the medical treatment of a patient; where the Director determines that a medical emergency exists, the Director may waive the written certification; or
(4) Health professionals (i.e., physician, industrial hygienist, toxicologist, epidemiologist, or occupational health nurse) in a nonemergency situation where the request is in writing and the request describes in reasonable detail the medical need for the information.
(e) When the Director of Health receives a request for information pursuant to Section 1141 and the registrant or permittee has designated as a trade secret the information sought, the Director of Health shall notify the registrant or permittee in writing of said request by certified mail. The Director of Health may release the information 30 days after the date of mailing said notice, unless prior to the expiration of said 30-day period, the registrant or permittee institutes and thereafter prosecutes in a timely manner an action in a court of competent jurisdiction claiming that the information is subject to protection as a trade secret under California law and seeking an injunction prohibiting disclosure of said information to the general public.
(f) In adopting this Article, the Board of Supervisors does not intend to authorize or require the disclosure to the public of any trade secrets protected under the laws of the State of California.
(g) This Section is not intended to empower a registrant or permittee to refuse to disclose any information including, but not limited to, trade secrets, to the Director of Health either in obtaining a certificate of registration or permit or upon demand by the Director.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Article, any officer or employee of the City and County, or former officer or employee or contractor with the City or employee thereof, who by virtue of such employment or official position has obtained possession of or has had access to information, the disclosure of which is prohibited by this Section, and who knowing that disclosure of the information is prohibited, knowingly and wilfully discloses the information in any manner to any person or business not entitled to receive it, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(i) The Director of Health shall advise any person or business to whom a trade secret is disclosed pursuant to this Section that the disclosure thereof, except as authorized by this Section, constitutes a misdemeanor.
(Added by Ord. 164-92, App. 6/10/92; amended by Ord. 399-97, App. 10/17/97)