Hazardous to Our Health? Format: Paperback

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is one of the most powerful of federal regulatory agencies, if not the most powerful. It regulates over 25% of all consumer goods sold in the United States. It makes decisions on a daily basis that affect the lives of millions of people.

While the FDA was created to protect the public, how well is it fulfilling this mission and whose interests is it actually protecting?

In this book, four outstanding scholars examine how the FDA accumulated its enormous power and what effects it has had on the public. It also explores who actually benefits and loses from FDA actions, and whether alternatives exist to safeguard the health of Americans. This book raises serious questions about the wisdom of giving policing power with little oversight or appeal process to scientists, as the FDA currently does. It also argues forcefully that the FDA unnecessarily delays beneficial medicines and medical devices, many of which are routinely available in Europe, from being available to Americans.

Robert Higgs is Retired Senior Fellow in Political Economy, Founding Editor and former Editor at Large of the Independent Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, the University of Economics, Prague, and George Mason University. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation. His many books include Crisis and Leviathan; Depression, War, and Cold War; After Leviathan; Delusions of Power; Neither Liberty Nor Safety; Resurgence of the Warfare State; Taking a Stand; and multiple edited collections.

Joel J. Nobel, M.D. (1934–2014) was Founder and President Emeritus of ECRI Institute, a U.S.-based, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization engaged in health services research.