Suchergebnisse

Sweden has long been seen as a pioneer in the area of chemical control policy. In 1995 it put forward a so called "generation goal" which called for a phasing out of all human made chemicals within a 25 year period. The Swedish Government took up the challenge of how to best reach this goal by putting forward a number of environmental quality objectives, which were approved by the Swedish Parliament in 1999. What has happened since then? Will Sweden reach its proposed generation goal? This paper addresses these two questions.

The communication and regulation of risk has changed significantly over the past 30 years in Europe and to a noticeable but lesser extent in the United States. In Europe, this is partly due to a series of regulatory mishaps, ranging from mad cow disease in the United Kingdom to contamination of the blood supply in France. In the United States, general public confidence in the American government has been gradually declining for more than three decades, driven by a mix of cultural and political conflicts like negative political advertising, a corrosive news media, and cuts in regulatory budgets. While the former approach is based on an objective assessment of the risk, the latter is driven more by the perception of the risk, consumer sentiment, political will, and sectoral advocacy. In this article, the author examines three U.S.‐based food case studies (acrylamide, bisphenol A, and artificial food colorings) where regulations at the local and state levels are increasingly being based on perceived risk advocacy rather than on the most effective response to the risk, be it to food safety or public health, as defined by regulatory interpretation of existing data. In the final section, the author puts forward a series of recommendations for how U.S.‐based regulators can best handle those situations where the perceived risk is markedly different from the fact‐based risk, such as strengthening the communication departments of food regulatory agencies, training officials in risk communication, and working more proactively with neutral third‐party experts.

Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions by Command of Her Majesty November 2011. The focus of this review has been on the 200 or so regulations and the 53 Approved Codes of Practice (ACoPs) owned by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). I have concentrated on areas where the evidence and contributions to my review have indicated that regulations are putting undue costs on business whilst doing little to improve health and safety outcomes.