Article ID: CBB606231580

Creating Regulatory Harmony: The Participatory Politics of OECD Chemical Testing Standards in the Making (September 2021)

unapi

Colleen Lanier-Christensen (Author)


Science, Technology and Human Values
Volume: 46
Issue: 5
Pages: 925-952


Publication Date: September 2021
Edition Details: Special Issue: Beyond the Production of Ignorance: The Pervasiveness of Industry Influence through the Tools of Chemical Regulation
Language: English

In recent decades, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has become a powerful forum for trade liberalization and regulatory harmonization. OECD members have worked to reconcile divergent national regulatory approaches, applying a single framework across sovereign states, in effect determining whose knowledge-making practices would guide regulatory action throughout the industrialized world. Focusing on US regulators, industry associations, and environmental groups, this article explores the participatory politics of OECD chemical regulation harmonization in the late 1970s to early 1980s. These efforts were conditioned by differential institutional access and resources among stakeholders who sought to shape regulatory knowledge rules. Facing competing European and US approaches to chemical data—a minimum “base set” of test data versus case-by-case determinations—OECD members chose the European approach in 1980. However, US regulatory politics shifted with the election of President Reagan, prompting industry associations to lobby the US government to block the agreement. Examining the micropolitics of these standards in the making, I demonstrate that while long-term structures advantaged industrial actors, ideological alignment with the US government precipitated their decisive influence. The case illustrates the importance of attending to the distinctive politics of international harmonization and the effects on transnational knowledge-making and regulatory intervention.

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Associated with

Article Emmanuel Henry; Valentin Thomas; Sara Angeli Aguiton; Marc-Olivier Déplaude; Nathalie Jas (September 2021) Introduction: Beyond the Production of Ignorance: The Pervasiveness of Industry Influence through the Tools of Chemical Regulation. Science, Technology and Human Values (pp. 911-924). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB606231580/

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Authors & Contributors
Henry, Emmanuel
Valentin Thomas
Spackman, Christy C. W.
Greenhough, Beth
Leonie Dendler
Spray, Chris
Concepts
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Power (social sciences)
Governance
Expertise
Regulation
Science and politics
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
Modern
Places
United States
Netherlands
Japan
Germany
Europe
European Union
Institutions
International Agency for Research on Cancer
United States. Environmental Protection Agency
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