White House to Increase Toxins washingtonpost.com — 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. Instead, the rule first surfaced when the Office
of Management and Budget posted on its web site that it was reviewing the
proposal, identified only by its title. The proposed rule 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.