At a time when the unemployment rate is nearing double-digits, President Obama’s OSHA nominee, David Michaels, threatens to be an occupational hazard.

He’s also a radical. Conservatives who were outraged by Van Jones should be apoplectic about his tenure when they consider that — according to their website — OSHA “inspected 38,579 workplaces during Fiscal Year 2006.”

David Michaels was behind the junk-science efforts to smear Bisphenol A (BPA) , an innovative chemical used to make plastics stronger. A few months ago, I wrote about BPA. Here’s an excerpt:

If you’re unfamiliar with Bisphenol A (BPA), it is a chemical used to make lightweight, versatile, durable, high-performance plastics. It’s also one of the most extensively tested products in the world. For example, as Norris Alderson, the FDA’s associate commissioner for science, said just last year, “a large body of available evidence” demonstrates that products made with it are safe.

As I went on to describe in that piece, the attacks on BPA were headed by organizations funded by liberals such as George Soros. As the Washington Times recently reported,

Mr. Michaels heads a group called the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP), which is extremely friendly to plaintiffs’ lawyers and is funded in large part by George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

The anti-BPA scare-campaign cost consumers untold millions of dollars and untold numbers of jobs. That’s not to mention the amount of emotional damage this junk-science inflicted on Americans who were sure they had harmed their baby by giving them the wrong plastic bottle. … Oh yeah, Michaels’ also helped line the pockets of trial lawyers who made money by suing manufacturers of products made with BPA. All of this, despite countless evidence that BPA was safe.

Sadly, avoiding an over-regulated business climate that kills jobs and scares parents is not all we have to worry about.

Like Obama’s other “Czars” and appointees, Michaels’ brand of radicalism extends beyond his area of expertise. In fact, Michaels sees even the 2nd Amendment as a work-place “regulatory” issue where he might, as head of OSHA, intervene.

Compared to Michaels, Mr. Van Jones is Mr. Dick Van Dyke.