Regulating Safety in the American Marketplace

Many business historians have traditionally privileged the private firm, but recent works in this field have begun to consider how societal norms and state action have shaped business practices and outcomes. The studies presented here show that when government officials, scientific experts, advocacy groups, and consumers argued that more extensive regulation and oversight of economic activity was in the public interest, businesses responded by cultivating the appearance of safety or, in some cases, co-opting the rhetoric of safety to their own ends. Thus, this panel contends that the history of firms that supply goods and services to consumers must be understood in the context of changes in regulatory policy, public perceptions of scientific expertise, and societal norms around public safety that have been elucidated by historians of science, technology, and medicine.
In his presentation, Parry analyzes how the U.S. National Commission on Product Safety challenged the efficacy of voluntary product standards and sought to justify increased federal regulation of domestic goods. In contrast, Bowrey’s work highlights the role of market structure and private sector technological innovation in precipitating the adoption of different regulatory regimes for medical devices. Wei adds to the discussion of medical devices with an examination of the regulatory and commercial niche created by the Dalkon Shield intrauterine device, which briefly revolutionized the contraceptive market before its eventual removal from the market due to serious side effects. Lastly, Grisinger examines how airlines appealed to safety considerations in banning physically disabled passengers, and how those travelers pushed both regulated entities and regulators to recognize and protect a right to air travel. Together, these presentations explore how conceptions of safety have contributed to the development of relationships among and between private firms, regulators, and consumers in the latter half of the twentieth century.