FDA Calculates How Much Pleasure Americans Lose By Not Smoking
The calculations were a part of how the agency decided on its proposed laws to regulate e-cigarettes.
Not a smoker? You’re missing out on a not-insignificant amount of fun, at least according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The agency recently released a cost-benefit calculation that included how much pleasure Americans lose by not smoking electronic cigarettes and some other tobacco products, Reuters reports. The calculation was a part of the decision-making into the FDA’s new proposed rules for regulating e-cigarettes.
Apparently the FDA values the pleasure of smoking quite highly. From Reuters:
If this seems a bit unusual to you, you’re not alone. Among economists, subtracting fun from the benefits of a proposed law is considered a “radical” addition to federal number-crunching, Reuters reports. Tobacco-control advocates worry the calculation will provide fodder for companies to argue that e-cigarettes and hookahs shouldn’t be as tightly regulated.
Reuters reports on an FDA’s spokeswoman’s explanation of the agency’s decision, as well as the government’s history of taking pleasure into account. The whole story is fascinating. You should check out the story there.
Meanwhile, we’d like to take a moment to think about what other cost-benefit calculations lost pleasure should play into. Regulating soda sizes? Restrictions on illegal drugs? Abstinence-only sex ed??