OpenMarket: Risk and Consumer Freedom

Joel Achenbach, a science and politics reporter, once asked why “many reasonable people doubt science.” He should look at his own reporting on alcohol research for the possible explanation. Despite decades of overwhelming evidence that moderate drinking confers health benefits, Achenbach’s August 3 Washington Post piece asserts that the evidence is “murky.” The basis for the assertion seems to come from a single study published in April in the journal...

Yesterday, I addressed why last week’s court order calling for a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos was both dangerous and wrongheaded. Today, we look at the details of another case that was also decided last Friday related to glyphosate, an herbicide used in Monsanto’s brand known as Roundup. In both cases, environmental activists (and trial lawyers in this particular case) have leveraged junk science to wrongly demonize products that farmers need to produce food.

Last week was a bad one for farmers. Two legal decisions were released that promise to undermine access to valuable agrochemicals that farmers need to produce a safe and affordable food supply. Both of these decisions came about thanks to a series of lies, misinformation, and junk science peddled by environmental activists and trial lawyers.

Of all the consumer products one might have expected to become a flashpoint for political controversy, the humble plastic drinking straw is an unlikely contender. Leap into the headlines it has, though, with communities like Seattle and San Francisco recently enacting bans on disposable straws. The city council of Santa Barbara, California initially voted for a ban that would have punished restaurant workers with up to six months of jail time for giving out a disposable plastic straw, but city officials agreed to revisit the ordinance when it appeared to also ban the sale of straws at supermarkets.

The Swedish think tank Timbro has published the first global index of the sharing economy. The Timbro Sharing Economy Index (TSEI) is the first study to compare the impact of the sharing economy between nations. It does so by providing a new definition of the sharing economy that incorporates the use of excess capacity, large decentralized digital networks as coordinators, and trust between strangers facilitated by infrastructure.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gotlieb, a medical doctor and cancer survivor, has had a long-term interest in tackling tobacco-related diseases. But unfortunately he’s on a path that will, perversely, be a disaster for the very people he wants to help.

The news media and activists like to hype e-cigarettes and flavored tobacco products as a health hazard, but the reality is that e-cigarettes could help save smokers’ lives. This summer, San Francisco voters went so far as approving a new ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products. 

Consumers beware: In response to plastic waste collecting in the oceans, states, businesses, and even the European Union have proposed absurd bans on the use of everyday plastic straws, cups, and other items in an attempt to solve ocean pollution.

This week, Starbucks pledged to remove plastic straws from its nearly 30,000 stores worldwide by 2020. Starbucks joins a going list of companies supporting this effort to decrease or ban the use of plastics: IKEA, Royal Caribbean, McDonald’s, Hyatt, American and Alaska Airlines, and more.

Recently, the city of Seattle became the first U.S. city to ban plastic straws and utensils...

In “Free to Prosper: A Pro-Growth Agenda for the 115th Congress,” CEI recommended that Congress hold oversight hearings regarding the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), specifically the Commission’s consideration of an activist petition calling on the agency to ban an entire class of flame retardants. We had already pointed out in a study why banning an entire class of chemicals is contrary to sound science and common sense—and is potentially dangerous, because it contributes to fire risks. The CPSC voted to proceed with the rulemaking last October, but...

Congress must act before anti-tobacco zealots in and outside of government eliminate life-saving vaping products. Anything that makes e-cigarettes less attractive to smokers will result in fewer smokers switching and more smokers dying.