Robert Pear at the New York Times reports on Sunday that political appointees in the Bush Department of Labor are trying to ram through a new federal regulation that would make it much tougher to regulate chemical and other toxic hazards in the workplace. The new rule would essentially require additional sources of data (which may or may not be available) and additional layers of review (to a process that can already take eight years or more) before exposure to a substance can be regulated. Once something gets into the Code of Federal Regulation, it has the force of law. It is also really hard to get out, as you have to go through the same process as posting a new regulation.
It is noted in the article that two of the workplace hazards that the the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have been trying for years to regulate are silica and beryllium, both of which have been known as workplace hazards for over sixty years. The new rule will make updating the regulations on those and other hazardous substances that much harder.
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