Pollution and climate change are election issues,write Professor Steve Tombs and Geoff NaylorThe government attributes 40-50000 premature deaths each year to the effects of airborne pollution; there are some 1 million cases of foodborne illness, which result in 20000 hospital admissions and 500 deaths a year; and up to 50000 people die each year as a result of injuries or health problems originating in the workplace (Enemies of the state: the 40-year Tory project to shrink public services, or G2,9 May). Yet the rate of inspection and enforcement actions for environmental health, food safety and hygiene, and health and safety have all been falling. The statistically average workplace now expects to see a health and safety inspector once every 50 years.In the name of cutting red tape,governments of all political persuasions have attacked independent regulation and enforcement. Budget cuts in the name of austerity have compounded the problem – especially at the level of local authorities. There is now a plethora (excess, overabundance) of schemes to outsource and privatise wholesale some regulatory and enforcement activities. Private companies are increasingly involved in “regulating” either other private companies, or themselves, and both. Such changes mark the beginning of the conclude of the state’s commitment to forms of social protection set into location since the 1830s.[br]Steve Tombs
Professor of criminology,Open UniversityContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com