The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration calls its new regulation the ``Ergonomics Program Standard.'' The National Federation of Independent Businesses has a different description: ``Ergo-nonsense.''

``Scheduled to take effect on Jan. 16, 2001, it is, without question, the most burdensome, expensive and intrusive regulation ever to be imposed on the small-business community,'' said Jack Faris, federation president.

We would have to agree. Ostensibly designed to help prevent repetitive motion injuries, like carpal tunnel syndrome, the new regulation will require employers to alter the workplace in order to do so. It's a noble intent.

But the regulation assumes that employers aren't already doing everything possible to take care of the health and well-being of employees. The regulation also doesn't have a scientific basis, seeing as how the National Academy of Science's study on ergonomics isn't even completed yet.

It's also curious how this 1,688-page regulation was able to be introduced and published in about a year's time, when, on average, it takes OSHA four years to do so with other regulations.

Because President Clinton allowed the regulation to move forward, it now will take legal action to stop it. That's not a sure thing, so business owners everywhere had better start preparing for their own version of ``ergo-nonsense.''

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