Statutes & Regulations

Beginning in the 1970s, there was a major wave of health, safety, and environmental regulation. In the United States, the government established new regulatory agencies with broad regulatory responsibilities for risk and environmental policy. Some of these agencies addressed risks to people, such as mortality and morbidity risks, while others focused on dangers to natural resources, such as endangered species, which affect people indirectly. Among these new federal agencies were the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) (Viscusi, Kip, 2006). Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the effects of laws and regulations are crucial steps in the process of ensuring effective legal environments for health but are often overlooked. Because law has the power to affect diverse populations in different ways, it is crucial that policy makers rely on evidence, whenever possible, to distinguish between laws that work, laws that do not work, and laws that cause harm. Federal environmental statutes and initiatives greatly influence both the development and enforcement of state environmental laws. Understanding the relationship between federal and state environmental regulations becomes critical (Burris, Anderson, 2013).

 

 

References:

Viscusi, W. Kip, Regulation of Health, Safety, and Environmental Risks (February 2006). Harvard Law and Economics Discussion Paper No. 544.

Burris S, Anderson E, Legal regulation of health-related behavior: A half-century of public health law research. Annual Review of Law & Social Science. 2013; 9: 95-117.