Health & Safety

From foods and pharmaceuticals, to consumer products and automobile safety, few public policy issues are as important to the public as the regulation of health and safety.  People often rely on government regulators to assure the safety and quality of many of the products they use and consume, but government regulation can often compromise safety, quality, affordability, and choice if it focuses on a fear-driven activist agenda rather than basic principles of science and genuine safety.  Too often, the government’s regulatory agenda favors politically expedient outcomes over those that would actually promote safety and availability.  For example, in the food safety realm, the U.S. government maintains outmoded “poke and sniff” meat inspectors whose methods are incapable of preventing foodborne illness while it also maintains regulatory barriers against new food safety technologies, such as irradiation, that could cut the incidence of foodborne illness by half or more.  And, federal fuel economy regulations for automobiles result in lighter, less crash-worthy cars.  Across the board, safety and health regulations should be designed with maximum flexibility to allow producers to use the production methods and labeling information that best meets their customers’ demands.