Federal and state legislators in the United States have enacted laws that mandate certain types of controls on human exposure to just about every category of consumer and medical product, industrial chemical, and environmental pollutant. Although these statutes vary regarding the extent of required risk control and the factors that need to be considered in risk management decisions, all seek protection of human health. Table 11.1 contains a list of some of the major laws, the categories of chemicals they cover, and a further notation regarding the factors that managers need to consider when making decisions. Countries in much of the rest of the world have enacted or are enacting similar legislation.

The first thing worth noting about these laws is that they do not treat all sources of chemical exposure in the same way. Congress has directed the FDA, for instance, to consider only whether an added food ingredient is “safe” when making decisions about allowing it to be used, whereas the same agency is allowed to balance the risks associated with a new drug against the health risks that might exist if the drug were not available for use in disease treatment; this balancing is often called a risk–benefit analysis. Costs are not allowed to be considered by the agency either in the case of drugs or of food ingredients.