U.S. is eyeing easing limits on chemical exposure, paper reports

It is common in Washington as an administration nears its end for officials at the federal agencies to try to push through often-controversial regulations. The idea is that whatever president follows, it may be a long time -- if at all -- before anyone gets around to taking a second look and manages to change them.

Environmental rules, health issues and workplace regulations are all common targets.

So along comes word that political appointees at the Department of Labor -- where Elaine L. Chao has been the secretary since the start of the Bush administration -- have their eyes on a plan that would make it more difficult to regulate on-the-job exposure of workers to chemicals and toxins.

That is a report in today's Washington Post, which said the senior officials are scrambling "with unusual speed" to get the rule in place.

The paper reports:

The agency did not disclose the proposal, as required, in public notices of regulatory plans that it filed in December and May. Instead, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao's intention to push for the rule first surfaced on July 7, when the White House Office of Management and Budget posted on its Web site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its nine-word title.

The text of the actual rule is not yet public, the Post reports, but the paper said the change would allow for the reexamination of how the risk of exposure to workplace toxins is measured -- taking up "long-standing complaints from businesses that the government overestimates the risk posed by job exposure to chemicals."

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo credit: Manny Ceneta / Agence France-Presse

Comments

[Kevin]

Sure, whatever's best for business! Who cares about the health of the little people?