Complacent and Conflicting Scientific Expertise in British and American Drug Regulation: Clinical Risk Assessment of Triazolam

摘要

Technological risk assessments can be of major social and political import- ance when they lead to one governmental regulatory outcome or another, as thousands or even millions of consumers, patients or workers may be affected. Typically such risk assessments are underpinned by a form of 'regulatory science'.~1 Under these circumstances, science and technology studies (S&TS) can make a major contribution to understanding the socio- technical bases for different regulatory outcomes, which can inform better regulatory decision-making in the future.