The OSHA promulgated a rule limiting employees’ exposure to cotton dust during the manufacture of cotton products because serious diseases were traced to exposure to such dust. The cotton industry...

The OSHA promulgated a rule limiting employees’ exposure to cotton dust during the manufacture of cotton products because serious diseases were traced to exposure to such dust. The cotton industry argued that the standard was beyond the scope of OSHA’s authority, in that it failed to reflect a reasonable relationship between the costs of compliance for the industry and the benefits to people working in the cotton industry. OSHA and the secretary of labor argued that they did not need to perform a cost-benefit analysis to justify the standard, but rather needed to show only that the standard reduced the risk of illness to an extent that was technologically and economically feasible. Who won this case and why?