Here's the latest rule the Bush administration is rushing to put into effect as the clock ticks down to January 20. The Labor Department is crafting a new rule that would make it much more difficult for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on their jobs.

The Labor Department has the responsibility of regulating occupational health hazards and protecting workers against such toxins as asbestos, benzene, cotton dust, formaldehyde, lead, vinyl chloride and blood-borne pathogens, including the virus that causes AIDS. Currently, assessments are being made on silica, beryllium and diacetyl, a chemical that adds a buttery

flavor to some types of microwave popcorn. Two agencies in the Labor Department would be directly affected by the ruling, Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) and Mine Safety and Health. They would have to publish "advance notice of

proposed rule making" and solicit public comment on studies, scientific information and data to be used. The ruling would require federal agencies to gather and analyze "industry-byindustry evidence" of employees' exposure to a particular substance during their working lives. The proposal adds a new step to a the process for protecting workers' health that already is long and complex.

As word of this proposal has leaked out, business groups have given their support, while public health officials and labor unions have launched strong criticism. There's nothing new about the opposing forces here. What is new is that President-elect Barack Obama has been an outspoken advocate of worker safety and regulation of toxic substances. During the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama attacked the regulation of workplace hazards by the Bush administration. In September, he joined four other senators to introduce a bill that would prohibit the Labor Department from issuing the very rule it is now drafting. He also signed a letter that urged the department to drop the proposal, saying it would "create serious obstacles to protecting workers from health hazards on the job." The assistant secretary of labor for policy, Leon Sequeira, responded with a categorical denial. "This proposal does not affect the substance or methodology of risk assessments, and it does not weaken any health standard." He said the proposal would allow the department to "cast a wide net for the best available data before proposing a health standard." The key word in that statement is "before." How long would casting the wide net take?

Margaret Seminario, director of occupational safety and health for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., answered that question. She said the new rule could add two years to a process that often takes eight years or more at present. "The administration is rushing to lock in place requirements that would make it more difficult for the next administration to protect workers." She added, "This rule is being pushed through by an administration that, for the last seven and a half years, has failed to set any new OSHA health rules to protect workers, except for one issued pursuant to a court order." A new president can reverse executive orders that were put into place by his predecessor. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush did that in certain cases. But it is far more difficult to reverse or revoke a ruling that has been put in place as part of the Code of Federal Regulations that have the force of law. To make such a change, the new administration must solicit public comment and supply a "reasoned analysis" as if it were issuing a new ruling, according to a Supreme Court decision.

To further complicate the matter, the timing of the worker safety ruling appears to violate a memorandum from the White House chief of staff Joshua Bolton this past May. Bolton wrote, "Except in extraordinary circumstances, regulations to be finalized in this administration should be proposed no later than June 1, 2008, and final regulations should be issued no later than November 1, 2008." Now, the question may revolve over the use of the verb "should," rather than "must." The Labor Department has not cited any "extraordinary circumstances" for their proposal which was published in the Federal Register on August 20. Officials confirmed that the proposal was still on the agenda. They said the proposal only affected "internal agency procedures" and cited a general "housekeeping statute" that allows a head of a department to prescribe rules for the performance of its business. Probing further reveals that they are referring to a law passed in l789 to assist George Washington in starting up the federal government!

Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, is chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. He was focused on 2008 when he argued that the proposal "would weaken future workplace safety regulations and slow their adoption." President-elect Obama and the other senators, in their letter to the Labor Department, had emphasized that standards to protect workers against known hazards like silica and beryllium, were urgently needed rather than changing risk-assessment procedures.

The Labor Department has been working on a regulatory standard for silica since l997, listing it as a priority since 2002. Answers from the Bush administration and business groups are broad and predictable. "Randel Johnson, a vice president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, said his group "unequivocally supports" the proposal because it would give the public a better opportunity to comment on the science and data used by the government. He complained that after a regulation is formally drafted and proposed, it is "all but impossible" to get OSHA to make important changes. He added "risk assessment drives the entire process of regulation."

While this issue of workplace safety has come to the surface, other new rules are being proposed that directly affect clean air and clean water for all citizens. One would allow coal companies to dump rock and dirt from mountain top mining operations into adjacent streams and valleys. Another, issued in late November by the Health and Human Services Department, gives states wide authority to charge higher co-payments for doctor's visits, hospital care and prescription drugs for low-income people under Medicaid. Other rules deal with auto safety and abortion. The Labor Department's proposal on standards for toxic substances is just one of twenty controversial new rules that President Bush is leaving as part of his legacy to President Obama and the American people.

Joyce S. Anderson's articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and other national publications. She is the author of "Courage in High Heels," "Flaw in the Tapestry," "If Winter Comes" and "The Mermaids Singing." She can be reached at JSAWrite@aol.com.