• Subject Areas
   – Energy & the Environment
   – First Nations
   – Health
   – Justice
   – Labour Market & Education
   – Regulatory Impacts
   – Research & Development
   – Safety
• Techniques
• Publications
• HBHC Evaluation

Governments attempt to reduce accidents and injuries through a number of policies designed to improve the safety of its citizens. We often are involved in projects to support the safety goals of government:

• We estimated the Social Costs of Motor Vehicle Crashes in Ontario. The modelling exercise used impact data for a given year from a number of secondary sources including: various ministries responsible for transportation, health, emergency services and from the insurance industry. Social values for the impact of crashes were identified from available sources or estimated by the model. The finished model is easily up-dated. It is used to assess the social cost avoided for various traffic safety interventions.

• In our Analysis of Proposed Changes to the Consumer Chemicals and Containers Regulations we assessed the costs and benefits of moving to a more generic means of regulating the labeling and packaging requirements for consumer chemical products. The new criteria-based system would require additional safety precautions the greater the hazard related to categories of hazard. We assessed costs through industry focus groups. Benefit data came from following up on the accidents involving consumer chemical products with our firm's 22,000 household consumer panel.

• Dichloromethane (DCM) is a common chemical used in a number of consumer products. However, it depresses the central nervous system and is a potential carcinogen. We assessed the benefits of proposed regulations through a survey of the product use characteristics by consumers, models to assess accumulated exposures, and models of health risk. Costs were assessed through industry focus groups. Results were presented in our Impact on Costs and Benefits of Alternative Restrictions that may be Placed on the Sale of Consumer Products Containing Dichloromethane (DCM).

• Evidence of dangerous use of charcoal briquettes in the U.S. led Canada to review its own charcoal regulations. We identified the incidence of use and hazardous use of charcoal briquettes in Canada through 14,000 completions to our household mail panel. Next we used a mall intercept survey to identify consumer reaction to four potential lables for the product, thereby identifying which might lead to safer use. We documented out findings in our Consumer Research Related to Charcoal Regulations.