ABSTRACT
The Environmental Protection Agency sets its standard for regulating chemicals at roughly four hundred thousand times above any known damage to man or beast. Regulation of low-level exposure to chemicals suspected of causing cancer is largely based on tests involving small animals, usually rats or mice or hamsters or guinea pigs. The growth of government, the perceived importance of political economy, and the eventual increase in interest in public policy, all made understanding the substance of policy, from social security to international repudiation of debt, essential. The knowledge, for instance, that trace amounts of something are or are not likely to cause harm to individuals. In various literatures on democracy and science, it is often said that democracy requires a scientifically literate population. Once-upon-a-time, it was thought necessary to protect democracy against the machinations of the Dr. Strangeloves of the world who would hide their moral obtuseness or viciousness behind a command of exotic lore.
