In this provocative study, John Mendeloff shows that federal programs which set standards for toxic substances have twin dilemmas. The new standards that they establish are usually too strict and costly to justify the benefits they confer. But, at the same time, the slow pace of standard-setting means that many serious hazards are never addressed at all. Mendeloff argues that more extensive, but less strict, rulemaking could make both industry and workers better off and that changes in legislation are required to break the current stalemate. Mendeloff looks at workplace risks regulated, and not regulated, by OSHA. He discusses the thorny issue of how much our society should value the prevention of occupational disease deaths. His innovative investigation of "underregulation" brings together diverse data to show that moderate reductions in current exposure levels would often be beneficial. Regulating Toxic Substancesmakes a major contribution to our understanding of how regulation works by demonstrating that the strictness with which standards are set is a major cause of the slow pace. Administrative rulemaking procedures offer opportunities for those concerned about the reasonableness of standards - judges and other public officials, as well as the affected industries - to try to block or delay them. An important implication is that less strict standards would not necessarily reduce overall protection and might increase it. In a major discussion of regulatory reform, Mendeloff analyzes such alternatives to standard-setting as information and liability strategies and such generic changes in regulatory procedures as regulatory budget and regulatory negotiation. Finding that neither provides a sufficient response to the overregulation-underregulation problem, he proposes a three-step legislative package that could be applied at OSHA and other standard-setting agencies. John Mendeloff is a policy analyst affiliated with the Program in Science, Technology, and Public Affairs at the University of California, San Diego. This book is seventeenth in the series Regulation of Economic Activity, edited by Richard Schmalensee.

Justice requires that we tolerate the chance of such errors and that we resist the temptation to demand the most science intensive evaluation of each substance in order to protect individuals better from mistakes of undercompensation and underregulation. The role of science in the control of toxic substances is an important public philosophical issue, yet until now has received little discussion by philosophers. Regulating Toxic Substances addresses this subject in a way that speaks both to a well-informed public and to experts in several disciplines, including philosophy, risk assessment, environmental and tort law, environmental studies, and public health policy.

Although poisonous substances have been a hazard for the whole of human history, it is only with the development and large-scale production of new chemical substances over the last two centuries that toxic, manmade pollutants have become such a varied and widespread danger. Covering a host of both notorious and little-known chemicals, the chapters in this collection investigate the emergence of specific toxic, pathogenic, carcinogenic, and ecologically harmful chemicals as well as the scientific, cultural and legislative responses they have prompted. Each study situates chemical hazards in a long-term and transnational framework and demonstrates the importance of considering both the natural and the social contexts in which their histories have unfolded.

This casebook provides a political, economic, and scientific context for toxic substance and hazardous waste law, along with key toxics statutes. The text of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; the Toxic Substances Control Act; and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act are included, and different approaches to toxics regulation are suggested.

All industrial countries have developed regulatory systems to assess and manage the risk of chemical substances to the working and natural environment. The pressure to harmonize these often specialized regulatory systems is increasingly strong at the international level. Such harmonization not only entails the assessment of particular chemicals, but also the way assessment procedures and their boundary with risk management is organized. As these initiatives intensify, they increasingly raise important questions of how to integrate national differences in the international regulatory arena. How will national consultation procedures relate to international decision-making on chemical risks? How will differences in national risk assessment procedures be accommodated? How will the international regulatory system be integrated with different national styles of regulation and government? Presenting the experiences and insights of both people from within the worlds of risk assessment and management and from the field of Science Studies, this book forms a state-of-the-art in the discussion on the Politics of Chemical Risk. By offering scenarios, or sketches of a regulatory future, it points to the choices that can be made and the opportunities to be explored. As such, it offers an agenda for environmental and occupational scientists, policy-makers and students of science and technology alike.

In the mid 1980s, there was a crisis in the availability, affordability, and adequacy of liability insurance in the United States and Canada. Mass tort claims such as the asbestos, DES, and Agent Orange litigation generated widespread public attention, and the tort system came to assume a heightened prominence in American life. While some scholars debate whether or not any such crisis still exists, there has been an increasing political, judicial and academic questioning of the goals and future of the tort system. Exploring the Domain of Tort Law reviews the evidence on the efficacy of the tort system and its alternatives. By looking at empirical evidence in five major categories of accidents--automobile, medical malpractice, product-related accidents, environmental injuries, and workplace injuries--the authors evaluate the degree to which the tort system conforms to three normative goals: deterrence, corrective justice, and distributive justice. In each case, the authors review the deterrence and compensatory properties of the tort system, and then review parallel bodies of evidence on regulatory, penal, and compensatory alternatives. Most of the academic literature on the tort system has traditionally been doctrinal or, in recent years, highly theoretical. Very little of this literature provides an in-depth consideration of how the system works, and whether or not there are any feasible alternatives. Exploring the Domain of Tort Law contributes valuable new evidence to the tort law reform debate. It will be of interest to academic lawyers and economists, policy analysts, policy professionals in government and research organizations, and all those affected by tort law reform.

In 1980, with the passage of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, Congress created the Superfund as a mechanism to clean up the toxic legacy of the industrial and chemical revolutions. Over a decade later, the consensus is that the program has failed: too much has been spent and too little accomplished. Harold Barnett unravels the history of this failure, examining the economic and political factors that contributed to it and suggesting policy changes necessary to create a viable cleanup program. Barnett argues that the Superfund has failed because of conflict over who will pay the toxic debt and the impact of this conflict on interdependent funding and enforcement decisions at state, regional, and national levels. He argues that the inability of legislators and regulatory agencies to take effective and timely action is related to the economic and political power of major corporate polluters. Spanning the Reagan and Bush administrations, the book highlights the ongoing conflict between deregulatory policies and environmental programs. Originally published in 1994. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Frequent media reports alert us to the dangers environmental chemicals may pose for human health. Each new warning generates an almost predictable debate: Interventionists demand stricter government regulations. Pragmatists counter that the costs of such controls are much greater than the benefits. Skeptics question the scientific validity of the alleged danger, and the cautious wonder if uncertainty can excuse failing to protect the public health. Better science can reduce—but not eliminate -- our uncertainty about the effects of chemicals. This book offers readers a unique way to sort through all the rhetoric that accompanies questions of science and health. In the case of exposures that arise from the consumption of specific products, markets can permit individuals to choose their own levels of exposure. Even when there is common exposure to chemicals in the air, a market for emission rights would allow the cautious to purchase such rights and reduce their exposure. In short, the market affords individualized responses to chemical risk as an alternative to government-imposed rules for everyone.

Biological threats like SARS and natural disasters like the tsunami in Indonesia have devastated entire regions, and quickly exhausted budgetary resources. As the field of environmental health continues to evolve, scientists and others must focus on gaining a better understanding of the links between human health and various environmental factors, and on creating new paradigms and partnerships needed to address these complex environmental health challenges facing society. Global Environmental Health in the 21st Century: From Governmental Regulations to Corporate Social Responsibility: Workshop Summary discusses the role of industry in environmental health, examines programs designed to improve the overall state of environmental health, and explores how governmental and corporate entities can collaborate to manage this industry. Stakeholders in both the public and private sectors are looking for viable solutions as the complexity of societal problems and risks associated with management and varying regulatory standards continue to increase. Global Environmental Health in the 21st Century draws critical links and provides insight into the current shape of global environmental health. The book recommends expanding environmental management systems (EMS) to encompass a more extensive global network. It also provides a complete assessment of the benefits and costs resulting from implementation of various environmental management systems.

These changes, together with the general advance in the study of regulation, undoubtedly demand a re-evaluation of the theory of regulation, its methodologies and scope of application. This book is a perceptive investigation of recent evolutions in the manner and extent of governance through regulation. Scholars and students of comparative politics, public policy, regulation theory, institutional economics and political sociology will find it to be essential reading. It will also prove a valuable source of reference for those working or dealing with regulatory authorities and for business managers in private industries and services operating under a regulatory framework.