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Risk regulation as it is currently implemented has
many pitfalls. In some cases, regulations to address one risk can
introduce other risks. In many cases, expenditure to reduce a
risk could save many more years of life if spent reducing another
risk. These issues are not currently considered by many of the
interest groups calling for more risk regulation, the public
supporting those calls, or the governments who respond by
introducing more regulation. Instead, risk activists and
regulators focus on the potential benefits of risk regulation
while ignoring the costs.
The chapters in this book help us to understand the importance of
considering the costs of regulation and basing decisions about
regulation on sound science and economics. They help us to
struggle with the difficult question: how safe is safe
enough?
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