A Survey of Safety Levels in Federal Regulation

摘要

Each agency regulating health or safety must set a safety goal, implicitly or explicitly. In some cases Congress has given specific guidance to work toward zero risk or to balance risks and benefits; more generally, Congress has given immense discretion to the agencies. Eight frameworks for regulating health and safety are described: (1) market regulation, (2) no-risk, (3) risk-risk, (4) technology based standards, (5) risk-benefit, (6) cost effectiveness, (7) regulatory budget, and (8) benefit-cost analysis. All frameworks except (3) and (7) are currently used. Important issues in deciding which framework to select include: (a) the required amount of data collection, analysis and value judgements for each, (b) whether risk can be quantified in each case, (c) how each framework affects priority setting, (d) the residual level of uncertainty after analysis, (e) safety goals, and (f) the general costs of regulating. The report examines the legislation and case studies of the major health and safety agencies: CPSC, OSHA, EPA, and FDA.