Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 20, 1994                   TAG: 9409220039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

PROPOSED RULES SPARK INVECTIVE

``We got a few letters that were over the line,'' Joe Dear, head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said Monday.

He said OSHA, a division of the Labor Department, received an estimated 100,000 correspondences after proposing in March new regulations that would require employers to provide separately ventilated rooms for smokers or ban smoking altogether. Dear said the contents of 12 letters were considered threatening enough to call in the FBI.

Asked whether any of the letters contained death threats, Dear responded, ``We interpreted them that way.'' He did not provide a text of any of the letters.

The volume of correspondence and the irate tone of some pieces demonstrate the level of emotion stirred by the proposed smoking regulations.

The agency will begin protracted hearings on the proposal today. It could be several years before final regulations are issued.

Never before has the government talked about such restrictions on smoking at work.

OSHA would implement new rules through its authority under federal health and safety laws. More than 6 million work places, including schools, factories, office buildings, restaurants and bars, would be affected.

Patrick Tyson, a former OSHA official who now serves as a lawyer for Philip Morris and other tobacco companies, said OSHA was overstepping its legal authority. Federal courts held that OSHA does not have authority to totally eliminate airborne carcinogens from work places and may implement regulations only if there is a ``significant risk,'' he said

``They simply don't have the authority to do this,'' Tyson said. ``OSHA does not have the authority to regulate to a zero risk.''