Neoliberal and public health effects of failing to adopt OSHA's national secondhand tobacco smoke rule.
From the early 1980s to the present, neoliberal doctrine has called for government policies of privatization, funding cutbacks, and deregulation of public health and other domestic social programs in the belief that the market rather than the public sector can best organize and distribute crucial societal services. Proponents of a neoliberal and deregulatory mixed approach of command and control and self-regulation argue this approach provides the most adequate means to conduct regulation in the legalistic and adversarial U.S. regulatory process. In April 1994, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a proposed rule to eliminate tobacco smoking in most workplace rooms, arguing secondhand tobacco smoke annually killed up to 13,700 nonsmokers. The tobacco industry purposely delayed public hearing procedures (later halted altogether by Congress and the president) primarily to advance unhindered private property rights and profits rather than submitting to a public command-and-control regulatory framework to reduce deaths due to secondhand tobacco smoke.
Givel
Michael
M
Department of Political Science, The University of Oklahoma, Norman 73109, USA. mgivel@ou.edu
D030861:Capitalism; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000517:prevention & control; D011057:Politics; D011332:Privatization / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011640:Public Policy; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D019460:Tobacco Industry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014481:United States; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration; D014489:United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration; D017132:Workplace / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000592:standards
D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution