THE semiconductor industry is moving, although slowly, toward studying the health effects on its workers of the many toxic chemicals used to create silicon chips.

The industry should pick up the pace. The announcement Tuesday that the main industry trade group will consider carrying out major studies on a possible cancer link to chip-making is welcome. But far better would have been an announcement that the industry will immediately launch those studies.

It's not as though no one has complained. During the past decade, workers have sued National Semiconductor Corp. and others, claiming exposure to chemicals starting in the 1970s led to miscarriages, birth defects and cancer. The federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health Services tried to study health problems among semiconductor workers three years ago, but the industry's refusal to cooperate doomed the study. That was reminiscent, in turn, of the political pressure the trade group brought on the EPA back in 1985 to sugarcoat a report on Silicon Valley's environmental hazards.

The witches' brew of toxic chemicals used to make the chips that run our computers and gadgets -- from arsenic and benzene to cadmium and lead -- are known carcinogens. The question is: Are workers exposed to levels high enough to cause cancer and other ailments? Nobody knows for sure. The industry has always maintained that it keeps exposure low, but has never carried out the research to determine whether that exposure is low enough. A thorough study will be difficult, but it could save lives. The outcome for the industry could range from exoneration to very costly changes. But eventually, it must be done.

Does this latest announcement represent a change of heart, or just another stalling tactic? It would help if the Semiconductor Industry Association would release the full text of the report from an independent scientific advisory panel, and the names of the members.

Evidence from European studies of cancer clusters in the industry certainly suggests that major research should be launched now, and pursued aggressively. Otherwise, workers can't know whether the semiconductor industry is indeed ``striving to make certain we're doing everything necessary and everything possible to ensure a safe, healthy workplace,'' as an industry spokesman told the Mercury News, or just trying to paper over a problem that threatens to embroil manufacturers in expensive lawsuits for years to come.