US thoroughly punishing infractions
You forgot the Baby Formula bacterial infection leading to shutdown of the largest plant in North America and widespread shortages. We actually had federal regulations which were repealed after the companies lobbied in favor of self-regulation.
I’m not sure this is true. Current US federal food and drug law has been in effect since the 1970s (for specifics, I’m thinking 21 CFR 211, which was codified 1979-ish) and it hasn’t really been repealed so much as it was never very explicit and rarely enforced, in part because of the difficulty of enforcing something so vague.
Example: The law clearly says, “you must have a written procedure in place to prevent contamination,” But it leaves it up to the manufacturer to determine what that procedure should be. In contrast, some of the EU legislation (EUDRALEX) is much more prescriptive: “you must do X, Y, and Z to prevent contamination in a multi-purpose facility.”
What little legislation was in place as US law before 21 CFR 211 was worse.
It’s also worth noting that much of the US’s regulation via agencies like the FDA is actually released as “guidance for industry.” Or to paraphrase, “don’t be a freaking idiot about things, but we can’t legally prosecute you for it if you don’t.” That’s a big loophole.
Consider the legal fiasco that was the trial of the owners and “quality manager” of that peanut company that caused multiple salmonella deaths about 10-15 years ago. Their QA manager’s legal defense was literally: I’m not qualified to do my job and should never been hired. 21 CFR says that “employees should be qualified to perform their jobs.” What does that mean? Should she have a degree in biology or chemistry? A degree in early childhood learning and k-12 education? On the job training on the day to day of the peanut factory and what to do if you have in infestation of birds? Beyond that, who is in charge of making sure she’s qualified? The regulations are unclear, and in the system that’s been in place for 40 years, all of those questions will be hammered out in the randomness of court and in the worst way possible. Like so.
I’m sorry - I could write a whole freaking book about this.
https://theintercept.com/2022/05/13/baby-formula-shortage-abbott-bacteria-safety-testing-lobbying/
The timeline is stricter regulations were announced in 2014 but weren’t implemented because of lobbying, leading to outbreaks and recalls that the companies responsible argued were not related to their formula, citing reports of frequent testing done in their facilities. Those reports turned out to be falsified.
If the regulations were put in place, then the facilities would have seen more frequent third party and/or government inspections.
should have had a panel with cops getting paid vacation for murdering people
I’ll be honest, I don’t really see how the Love Canal has much to do with self regulation, as the chemical company involved did go above and beyond the regulations at the time for the containment liner. It only failed when people dug foundations through the middle of it because the local town council forced them to sell the property to the council, and then immediately flagrantly violated the terms of the sale where they agreed to never build on the site by concealing the site’s history and building a school while auctioning off the land to developers for a surrounding neighborhood on the site.
I think the Cuyahoga River can fit for both heavy industry and chemical companies. Not even necessarily for the same fire either lmao
A brief history of regulation…
- Euclidean zoning
- Alcohol prohibition
- Subsidies for fossil fuel companies
- 2008 financial crisis bailouts
A brief history of self-regulation…
- Decriminalization of drug possession and consumption
- Nunavut self-governance
- Cash donation charities; UBI
- EU Schengen agreement
Maybe: poor people self-regulating > governments regulating > corporations self-regulating > rich people self-regulating?
…wat? I can’t hear you over the industrial cherry picking you’re doing over there.
If you prefer to eat the entire cherry tree, that’s your perogative. Personally I prefer using more precise tools so I only take what I need to and do as little damage as possible, though rest assured the cherries are hand-picked. The noise must be on your end.
“my emotional” is also reflected by the one with the label “heavy industry”