Regulators dismissed lead hazards by comparing victims to foolhardy suicides

Evidence

Furthermore, we annually have a few people who close themselves up in the winter months in their garages, and … insist upon choking themselves to death with carbon monoxide, and still we have not legislated against the construction of garages; nor have we said that such people cannot drive automobiles. It seems to be almost impossible to safeguard against all foolhardy accidents. (U.S. Public Health Service, 1925) In the minimization of health effects, Robert Kehoe, head of the industry-funded Kettering Laboratory, was “a virtual commissar of lead toxicology” until the 1960s (Markowitz & Rosner, 2002). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1761

Categorization

• XREF: ‘Foolhardy accidents’ framing — blame displacement onto victims as volontary risk-takers — recurs in exposure-as-choice debates about obesity, smoking, and seat belts.
• ADDENDUM: The garages-and-carbon-monoxide deflection is a striking example of exonerative comparison, parallel to the immodesty moral panics’ logic of blaming the victim.