Feds Push to Ease Workplace Toxin Regs

The Department of Labor is rushing to push through policy that would make it more difficult to regulate workers’ exposure to toxins, the Washington Post reports. The proposal was never publicly disclosed, as required by law, but rather surfaced on the website of the White House Office of Management and Budget, noting its pending review.

The department’s new urgency marks a stark contrast from its past sluggishness, having changed only one major rule regarding workplace toxins in the past 7 1/2 years—and under court order. "They are trying to essentially change the job safety and health laws and reduce required workplace protections through a midnight regulation," decried a director at the AFL-CIO. (More Department of Labor stories.)