EDITORIAL : BAD SCIENCE, BAD POLICY PAST MISTAKES CAN BE COSTLY FOR SOCIETY.

Call it the ``oops'' syndrome. It's the frustrating plight of someone who took action based on available information that later turned out to be wrong - too late to undo the damage.

``Obviously, a man's judgment cannot be better than the information on which he has based it,'' the late Arthur Hays Sulzberger, former publisher of the New York Times, once said during a speech to fellow newspaper executives.

Computer buffs have a more colorful way to describe the futility of bad data: ``Garbage in, garbage out.''

But no matter what words are used to describe it, the ``oops'' syndrome is a fact of life.

And no matter how many real-life examples we hear of, few are as frustrating as the costly policies adopted by government decision-makers who relied on questionable data.

For instance, a study from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory indicates that underground fuel-tank leaks are far less damaging to the environment, and pose a much smaller health threat, than once believed.

As a result, the state Water Resources Control Board is re-evaluating a 13-year-old cleanup program that has cost fuel tank owners more than $1 billion in cleanup costs. Much of that money has come from fees that underground tank owners must pay regardless of whether their tanks are leaking.

Unfortunately, that case is not unique in the annals of ``oops.'' Another is the recent disclosure of a big goof in post-divorce economics of men and women.

According to published reports, sociologist Lenore J. Weitzman now concedes that statistics she published 11 years ago, which were widely re-quoted, are flat wrong. Her study concluded that women's households suffered a 73 percent drop in their standard of living in the first year after divorce, while men's households had a 42 percent rise.

Another sociologist who recently examined Weitzman's data found the actual figures were a 27 percent decline for the women and 10 percent rise for the men. The gap is still noteworthy, but hardly the cataclysmic scenario Weitzman depicted in her study of California's no-fault divorce system.

But the damage was done. Her numbers were repeated in hundreds of newspapers and magazines, dozens of legal appeals and Supreme Court cases, and even in President Clinton's budget proposal.

They also were cited by lobbyists and legislators when the state Legislature enacted new laws on child-support and divorce. Although Weitzman has set the record straight, we're not about to hold our breath waiting for the Legislature to re-visit the issue.

But the lawmakers should reconsider these matters, just as the Water Resources Control Board is doing with fuel tanks. When public policies are set by government officials relying on bad science, all too often the public pays for the mistake.