Bad news of the day: It is fast only when it want to be.
One would think that if it takes the government over 30 years to set safety standards for sunscreen, they would be as "effective" on other aspects of their work. But, no, that is not the case with this administration (and unfortunately many others before this one).
The last few months of the Bush administration are being used to push for a rule that would make it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins. This is all being done at the Department of Labor, by the political appointees of the commander-in-chief.
According to a Washington Post investigation, the Department of Labor did not disclose the proposal (even though that is required) in public notices, and the text of it is still not made public. The Post further states that the proposal 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 additional round of challenges to agency risk assessments.
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."
Many people are exposed to toxic chemicals at work, and the public as well as those employees often lack knowledge about exposures. A while ago, we did a conducted a nationwide survey of nurses that suggests associations between the health of nurses and their children and the nurses' long-term exposures to the many hazardous chemicals, drugs, and other agents they encounter over the course of a workday. There are so many people that are exposed to toxic chemicals through their professions that the last thing we need is federal action making it tougher to regulate workplace exposures.
I can't help but to think of The Simpsons:
"Lisa, the whole reason we have elected officials is so we don't have to think all the time. Just like that rainforest scare a few years back. Our officials saw there was a problem and they fixed it, didn't they?" -- Homer Simpson