New Regulations Target Phones, Fridges, Fauna

Telephone bills will increase. Trucks will be less of a highway hazard. Obscure butterflies will get new protection. Television pictures will be sharper. And the mentally troubled will get more help.

This is but a sample of the intent of new regulations that Washington has rolled out for 1998. While less extensive than in years past, they will touch virtually every U.S. industry and every individual (as well as some small creatures).

The scope of federal regulation has changed dramatically in recent years, the result of a conservative political climate that views government intervention with increasing skepticism and a bureaucratic downsizing that has left the federal work force smaller than at any time since 1961.

“Our mantra is, ‘More benefits, fewer burdens,’ ” said Sally Katzen, the government’s senior regulator at the Office of Management and Budget. “We are seeing continued progress.”

New laws and regulations are not nearly as sweeping as they were in the heyday of government rule-making in the 1960s and ‘70s, when agencies began imposing a wide range of regulations and creating big social programs.

But even in this anti-regulatory era, Washington remains a potent force. And many changes are in store in 1998, affecting such key areas as health care for the aged, vehicle safety, telecommunications, education and the environment.

The Federal Communications Commission, for example, has ordered a monthly $1.50 rate hike in telephone bills for customers with a second telephone line. The increase is aimed at subsidizing the cost of high-speed Internet service to schools, libraries and rural health facilities, as mandated by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Shoppers will find that refrigerators cost about $30 more but offer 30% better energy efficiency, the result of new Energy Department regulations. The refrigerators will begin appearing in stores this year. By 2000, all models must conform to the new standards.

“We are building a fridge to the 21st century,” said Assistant Energy Secretary Dan Reicher.

If higher appliance prices and bigger telephone bills create way too much stress and anxiety, getting professional help may become somewhat easier.

New rules will establish “parity” for mental health coverage under group health plans, effective Jan. 1. The law, passed by Congress in 1996, requires health plans, such as those sponsored by employers, to provide the same annual and lifetime spending caps for mental health benefits as they do for medical and surgical benefits.

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The law exempts companies with fewer than 50 employees, as well as any plan that experiences a cost increase of 1% or more as a result of complying with the new law over a period of six months. But the Department of Health and Human Services said it expects few cost-based exemptions.

If all these changes produce a headache, reaching for a bottle of aspirin may become less of a hassle, thanks to new Consumer Product Safety Commission rules on child-resistant packaging.

In an effort to encourage packaging that is more accessible to older Americans, the commission has decided to staff test panels with adults ages 50 to 70, rather than just with younger adults, as it has in the past. The inability of some older Americans to deal with child-resistant packaging on containers, which as a consequence are left open, has contributed in part to accidental poisoning of children.

The world is also expected to become safer for three creatures that inhabit Northern California: the Behren’s silverspot butterfly, the Callippe silverspot butterfly and the Alameda whip snake. They will be added to the federal list of endangered species, which will restrict land use where they are found.

Improvements in public safety will be provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Starting in January, most new truck trailers and semi-trailers must be equipped with rear-impact guards that are designed to prevent smaller vehicles from going under the back of trailers in a crash.

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By March, anti-lock brake systems will be required on all new air-braked trailers and single-unit trucks, In September, most light trucks and vans (with a gross weight of 6,000 pounds or less) must be included in side-impact crash tests for passenger protection. Enhanced head protection, such as interior padding, will be phased in for new cars, light trucks and vans, also in September.

Of course, it’s always safer to stay home and watch television, and that experience will be enhanced in 1998 by new standards negotiated by federal regulators and the broadcast industry.

Digital television sets will go on sale soon. By the fall, broadcasters in Los Angeles and nine of the nation’s other largest television markets are expected to begin airing some prime-time programming in a new high-definition format featuring theater-like video and CD-quality sound.

Calling out for pizza could become cheaper. In the spring, businesses and residential users will no longer have to switch phone numbers if they change carriers in search of a better deal. The rule change is expected to give a huge boost to local telephone companies trying to compete with the regional Bells that now dominate the local phone business.

Medicare, the health care program that covers 38 million elderly Americans, is adding major new preventive care benefits for the first time next year.

A mammogram will be available every year, with immediate coverage and no deductible. Pap smears, a screening pelvic exam and clinical breast examinations will be available every three years with no deductible. Women judged by their doctors at high risk of developing vaginal or cervical cancer will be authorized to have yearly examinations.

For the first time, Medicare will cover preventive screening for colon cancer. People with diabetes will get additional help from Medicare later in the year. Blood glucose monitors and blood-testing strips will be classified as durable medical equipment and will be eligible for payment coverage, starting July 1.

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Tests to measure bone mass and loss, important in detecting osteoporosis, will be covered by Medicare on July 1.

New labels will begin appearing on vitamins and other dietary supplements. Manufacturers have until March 1999 to change the labels, but the bulk of the changes are likely to be seen in 1998.

The labels will resemble the nutrition charts now found on all packaged foods and will list nutrients in a standard order, including the percent needed by all Americans over the age of 4.

Those labeled “high potency” must supply at least 100% of those nutrients’ daily values. For multiple vitamins, the “high potency” designation requires that the daily value be met for two-thirds of the vitamins and minerals in the bottle.

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For herbal products, the new rules require that the label list the plant name and plant part used, such as leaves and roots. Health claims, which must be documented before they are allowed on food labels, are permitted without documentation on supplements, but must carry a disclaimer: “This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.”

Attention college freshmen and sophomores: You or your parents (whoever pays the tuition) are entitled to a $1,000 tax credit for the first $1,000 in tuition and qualified expenses paid after Jan. 1, and a 50% credit for the next $1,000 in expenses.

To qualify for the full $1,500 tuition credit, married taxpayers must have adjusted gross income of no more than $80,000, and single taxpayers no more than $40,000.

New performance standards will make it easier for Head Start agencies to work with schools and community groups, and provide new recommendations on working with children under the age of 3. The standards eliminate highly prescriptive rules, such as requiring agencies to use child-sized utensils.

In the contentious area of the environment, new regulations will expand public access to information about toxic materials released by industries into the air and water.

President Clinton first raised the idea in 1995 and, last April, Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol M. Browner signed regulations that put the measure into effect Jan. 1.

The regulations expand the number of industrial facilities required to make such information public by about 30% to 31,000 sites, covering metal mining, coal mining, electric utilities, commercial hazardous-waste treatment, petroleum bulk terminals, chemical wholesalers and solvent recovery services.

But the new rules have a lengthy implementation period. Companies must begin collecting information on their toxic discharges starting Jan. 1. By July 1999, they must begin reporting the information to the EPA. In early 2000, the information must be made available to the public, either in libraries or through the Internet.

Finally, the nation plans to start burying its most poisonous waste in 1998 when the Energy Department opens an underground dump in New Mexico for plutonium-contaminated wastes from nuclear weapons.

The dump, known as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, is located in salt structures several thousand feet underground and will cost about $2 billion.

Times staff writers Marlene Cimons, Jube Shiver, Alissa J. Rubin, James Gerstenzang and Edwin Chen contributed to this story.

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* A list of new California laws for 1998 is available on The Times’ World Wide Web site at https://www.latimes.com