!! spellx done
215  We Know Little About Matches
     The Washington Post  June 27, 1970

     The protection of consumers against unwarranted risks is a 
responsibility spread over a wide range of government departments and 
regulatory agencies.  The disadvantages of this diffusion of authority
are only too obvious. It is a pleasure to see an occasional compensation
from the exposure of a particular problem to an unusual talent.

     The Commerce Department has the responsibility for setting 
technical standards under the Flammable Fabrics Act of 1967. The task is
rather more complex than appears at first sight, but recent prodding
from consumerists may help the push for needed regulations against
political obstacles as well as technical uncertainties.

     In an erudite analysis, Assistant Secretary Myron Tribus has
exposed the absurdities of demanding absolute safety at infinite cost,
even from the standpoint of minimizing child casualties.  If perfect
flameproofing is achieved at too high a cost, consumers will simply
evade the regulation by making their own garments.

     Behind the nitty-gritty of working out a compromise among the
discordant interests, some larger issues of social policy are still
not yet well resolved.  No one disputes that the government should
expose the risks of flammable garments and other common consumer 
products. How far should it go, however, in compelling the consumer to
pay higher costs involuntarily as the price of his own safety?

     In a truly free market, the informed self-interest of the "economic
man" should be a sufficient guide to proper choices.  This model
of consumer does not stand up in a culture where the producers
(namely, television advertisers) dominate the most effective channels
of communication and information.

     Matches Overlooked
     The essential vitality of our free economy then depends crucially
on the ability of consumers to organize effectively--to obtain 
information and exert the leverage of scale--to make the market the 
ideal place for the balancing of interest.  Direct regulation by 
government agencies may sometimes be more efficient, but a world, 
dominated by policemen is only a notch better than one run by thieves.

     Government must still pay an indispensable role, especially in
facilitating consumer information.  The Consumer Class Action Act,
now pending in Congress, would have this side effect as perhaps its
most important purpose, for it would allow research on pervasive
abuses to be financed and publicized at the prospective expense of the
defendant corporate abusers.

     Agencies like the Commerce Department and the Food and Drug 
Administration must also multiply the level of sophisticated research 
that is so badly needed for the identification of high-priority problems.
There are many areas where modest efforts might have a large payoff
but are neglected for lack of an organized constituency.

     For example, in his analysis of clothing fires, Dr. Tribus pointed
out how little we know about how such fires are started.  Careful
study of matches might thus help to childproof them, with a better
payoff in fires prevented, per dollar invested, than by the absolute
flameproofing of fabrics.  Is anyone doing research on matches today?

     The hardest thing to accomplish may be better communication among
the various  agencies which have different areas of authority and
expertise.  The Food and Drug Administration has the most crucial 
responsibilities for the public health and safety with respect to drug
and food additives.  It is beset on one side by overwhelming pressures
from corporate interests which have made large investments not to
be lightly disregarded.  On the other, it is bound to an image of
"safety" as an absolute ideal beyond reach on this earth.

     The agency has, and knows where to get, competent medical advice.
It has not, within its limited budget, also housed the orientation and
expertise needed for the quantitative analysis of risk in the style of
the economist and the mathematical decision analyst.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------