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Assessing The Effectiveness Of Federal Policy On Environmental Illness
Author(s) -
Caress Stanley M.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
southeastern political review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 0730-2177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.1999.tb00523.x
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , political science , government regulation , public administration , business , public economics , law , economics , philosophy , linguistics , china
The increased number of Americans suffering from environmental illness has produced numerous governmental actions. Federal efforts taken to help individuals afflicted with multiple chemical sensitivities, which is a disabling hypersensitivity to commonplace chemicals, reveal that the government can provide benefits to the afflicted much more readily than it can regulate the causes of the affliction. Regulation of the suspected causes of this condition has been blocked because of a medical controversy over its origin. While Congress initially provided funds to study the origins of the malady, the amounts were insufficient to produce the conclusive evidence necessary to settle the controversy. The result has been that the federal government continues to provide disability benefits to the growing number of sufferers, but does not fund the research that could justify regulation of the causes of the condition.