Part II: POLICY ISSUES AND POLICY STUDIES: SECTION VI: 36. Cotton Dust Regulation: An OSHA Success Story?

This article discusses the consequences from the regulations established by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in June 1978 to regulate exposure by workers to cotton dust in textile facilities. This regulation was the subject of internal conflict within the administration of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, served as the focal point of a fundamental Supreme Court decision in the risk regulation area, and was the target of a controversial re-assessment under the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The source of the concern over OSHA's initiative was derived from the link between cotton dust and the disease byssinosis. The link of chronic byssinosis effects to cotton dust is also controversial because the relevant medical evidence on the nature of the causal link is not conclusive.