Unsupported Zeal.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)

Environment: Had a tune-up lately? The government may require you to. Want to grill a steak or build a campfire? Don't plan on it.

These sound far-fetched, don't they? The federal government isn't in the business of such minute regulation of citizens' lives, is it? Well, under a ruling last week by a federal appeals court, it could well take on that role.

In its zeal to ensure clean air, the Environmental Protection Agency in 1996 proposed new rules to limit soot and ozone pollution. On soot, the agency proposed rules extending regulations to smaller particles -- 28 times smaller than the width of a human hair. On ozone, the new rules are designed to cut the allowable amounts of so-called particulate matter by a third.

The EPA cited as its reasons its desire to protect "sensitive" segments of the populace -- the young, old and ill -- from air pollution. It pointed to a rise in asthma cases in particular.

All worthwhile goals, to be sure. But science doesn't show a strong link between ozone, soot and asthma.

A November report from a panel of doctors convened by the nonprofit Annapolis Center put it this way:

"Most of the studies found a statistically significant relationship between asthma and one or more of the pollutants. A few of the studies found no relationship. However, even in the ones that found a positive relationship, the results were inconsistent and the associations very weak." In scientific terms: "The 95% confidence interval of the relative risk barely exceed(ed) 1.00." ...