U.S. Rushes to Change Workplace Toxin Rules

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Washington Post

Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins.

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 (OMB) posted on its Web site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its nine-word title.

The text of the proposed rule has not been made public, but according to sources briefed on the change and to an early draft obtained by The Washington Post, it would call for reexamining the methods used to measure risks posed by workplace exposure to toxins. The change would address long-standing complaints from businesses that the government overestimates the risk posed by job exposure to chemicals.

The rule would also require the agency to take an extra step before setting new limits on chemicals in the workplace by allowing an extra round of challenges to agency risk assessments.
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The department's speed in trying to make the regulatory change contrasts with its reluctance to alter workplace safety rules over the past 7 1/2 years. In that time, the department adopted only one major health rule for a chemical in the workplace, and it did so under a court order.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/22/AR2008072202838.html?nav=rss_politics/administration

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Zyklon B will now be reclassified by business as an irritant

that may cause some workers to become permanently lethargic and non attentive.

[intheflow]

4. And creosote makes an awesome substitute for jam!

Yum!

Not only is it tasty (hot and spicy!), it serves to recycle industrial waste and, as free government issue, will help allay the high family grocery bills! Gosh, isn't deregulation great?

:puke:

[Rex]

2. Once again, we get screwed and the Govt/Big Business kills us slowly

with their greed and hate for the working class. Is it 1776 yet?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Bush wants to poison us!

again the greedy bosses win and the worker is poisoned.

They could make Bush a 'lab rat' when he gets out of office, see how he likes it.

[Plucketeer]

5. Elaine Chao's on record..

...as saying : "Hey! 'at's as best os we can do! :think:

[Indenturedebtor]

6. Don't worry I'm sure this will get a ton of coverage in the press

There will be public outrage... riots in the streets. Calls to unionise!

Do I even need this :sarcasm: tag?

[dipsydoodle]

7. That's a subject

which is almost bullet proof in the UK - it's called the Health & Safety at Work Act. Methinks you need such a general Act in the USA

[AzDar]

8. Everything they touch, they destroy.

:mad:

[formercia]

9. Just in time to join the Third World. n/t

[brentspeak]

10. "The agency did not disclose the proposal, as required..."

Shouldn't that legally invalidate the proposal then?

Bush and his horde can't leave the White House fast enough.

[Zorra]

11. These people are unspeakably wicked. The essence of evil.

After the election, Democrats should enact a law that is effective retroactively, declaring that anyone involved in this process should be held civilly and criminally accountable for any person that dies or is injured under these new guidelines.

Conviction should carry a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years in a maximum security federal prison. Their victims should be compensated out of mandatory fines, and these monsters should be subject to civil action.

[lonestarnot]

13. Asses of Evil is my preference.

[Tempest]

12. DOA

This will never get approved or survive a lawsuit when challenged.

This kind of thing has to piss of McSame since it decreases his chances.

[nam78_two]

14. God I can't wait for these guys to go

They are gonna try to push through so much crap in their final months :puke:.