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The Politics of Precaution examines the politics of consumer and environmental risk regulation in the United States and Europe over the last five decades, explaining why America and Europe have often regulated a wide range of similar risks differently. It finds that between 1960 and 1990, American health, safety, and environmental regulations were more stringent, risk averse, comprehensive, and innovative than those adopted in Europe. But since around 1990, the book shows, global regulatory leadership has shifted to Europe. What explains this striking reversal? David Vogel takes an in-depth, comparative look at European and American policies toward a range of consumer and environmental risks, including vehicle air pollution, ozone depletion, climate change, beef and milk hormones, genetically modified agriculture, antibiotics in animal feed, pesticides, cosmetic safety, and hazardous substances in electronic products. He traces how concerns over such risks--and pressure on political leaders to do something about them--have risen among the European public but declined among Americans. Vogel explores how policymakers in Europe have grown supportive of more stringent regulations while those in the United States have become sharply polarized along partisan lines. And as European policymakers have grown more willing to regulate risks on precautionary grounds, increasingly skeptical American policymakers have called for higher levels of scientific certainty before imposing additional regulatory controls on business.

Environmental policy --- Public health laws --- Safety regulations --- Consumer protection --- Communicable diseases --- Public health --- Medical laws and legislation --- Safety regulations, International --- Accidents --- Police regulations --- Industrial safety --- Consumerism --- Protection, Consumer --- Commercial policy --- Law and legislation --- Prevention --- European 1 : --- American 1 : --- General & Multiperiod. --- American chemical regulations. --- American policies. --- American regulatory policies. --- EU. --- Europe. --- European chemical regulations. --- European policies. --- REACH. --- Toxic Substances Control Act 1976. --- United States. --- affluent democracies. --- agricultural production. --- air pollution. --- chemicals. --- climate change. --- consumer regulation. --- consumer risk regulation. --- consumer safety. --- cosmetic safety. --- cosmetics. --- costТenefit analyses. --- domestic pressures. --- drug lag. --- drugs. --- economic integration. --- environmental regulation. --- environmental risk regulation. --- environmental risk regulations. --- food safety. --- genetically modified agriculture. --- global regulatory leadership. --- government officials. --- hazardous substances. --- health risk. --- health. --- mobile source pollutants. --- nongovernment organizations. --- pesticides. --- pharmaceutical regulation. --- policy convergence. --- policy errors. --- policy makers. --- policy outcomes. --- policy shifts. --- policy styles. --- political salience. --- political systems. --- public demands. --- public opinion. --- public pressures. --- public risk. --- regulatory officials. --- regulatory stringency. --- risk assessment. --- risk assessments. --- risk regulation. --- risk regulations. --- safety risks. --- safety. --- transatlantic commerce. --- transatlantic politics. --- transatlantic risk regulation. --- vehicle air pollution.