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The Lulling Effect: The Impact Of Child-Resistant Packaging On Aspirin And Analgesic Ingestions, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In 1972, the Food and Drug Administration imposed a protective bottle cap requirement on aspirin and other selected drugs. This regulation epitomizes the technological approach to social regulation. The strategy for reducing children's poisoning risks was to design caps that would make opening containers of hazardous substances more difficult. This engineering approach will be effective provided that children's exposure to hazardous products does not increase. If, however, parents leave protective caps off bottles because they are difficult to open, or increase children's access to these bottles because they are supposedly "child proof," the regulation may not have a beneficial effect. …