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Carcinogen Regulation: Risk Characteristics And The Synthetic Risk Bias, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In this paper, I will explore the decision to regulate natural and synthetic chemicals. To what extent are regulatory decisions driven by the severity of the risk as opposed to the character of the risk exposure? The striking result is that the risk severity plays a very small role. Instead.it is whether the chemical is synthetic or natural that is the driving force behind regulatory decisions.