The Lulling Effect: The Impact of Child-Resistant Packaging on Aspirin and Analgesic Ingestions
Viscusi, W. Kip
:
1984
Abstract
In 1972 the Food and Drug Administration imposed a protective bottlecap 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.
Indeed, in this case there was no significant impact of the regulation on aspirin poisoning
rates, but there has been an alarming, upward shift in the trend of analgesic ingestion
rates since 1972. The source of this pattern appears to be attributable to a general
reduction in parental caution with respect to such medicines, which has had an
adverses pillovere ffect on unregulatedp roducts. The economic mechanisms involved can
be best understood by considering the nature of individuals' response to regulatory protection.
Files in this item
- Name:
- Lulling Effect the Impact.pdf
- Size:
- 260.5Kb
- Format:
- Description:
- article published in economic ...