New Report from the Consumer Choice Center: The Folly of One Size Fits All Regulations

The Consumer Choice Center just published a new report explaining the difference between hazard and risk and examines how a hazard based regulatory approach to four areas of manufacturing will result in fewer choices for consumers, lower quality products, and higher prices. 

Do you know the difference between risk and hazard? You should! And so should lawmakers. Take a look at this helpful graphic:

Author David Clement, the North American Affairs Manager for the Belgium-based Consumer Choice Center, writes:

Much of the “one size fits all” approach can be summarized as a failure to properly understand the difference between hazards and risks. This is an incredibly important distinction when policymakers are crafting laws aimed at protecting consumers, and in many instances public health. 

Risk-based regulation considers exposure to hazards For instance, the Sun is a hazard when going to the beach, yet sunlight enables the body’s production of vitamin D and some exposure to it is essential to human health. As with everything else, it is the amount of exposure that matters. A hazard-based regulatory approach to sunlight would shut us all indoors and ban all beach excursions, rather than caution beach-goers to limit their exposure by applying sunscreen. The end result would be to harm, not the protection of human health.

As with everything else, it is the amount of exposure that matters. A hazard-based regulatory approach to sunlight would shut us all indoors and ban all beach excursions, rather than caution beach-goers to limit their exposure by applying sunscreen. The end result would be to harm, not the protection of human health. 

The report is broken down into four parts, each section examining the harms associated with hazard-based regulations on chemicals, talc, cannabis, and glyphosate (more commonly known as Round Up–a safe and very popular pesticide with farmers and non-farmers).

With each of these products, a hazard-based regulatory framework results in the same thing: fewer choices for consumers, inferior products on store shelves, and higher prices.

Read the entire report here, educate yourself on the criticat difference between risk and hazard, and push back on legislative proposals that don’t take into account real world applications of these important, innovative, products.