Coalition for Uniform Risk Evaluation

Coalition for Uniform Risk Evaluation (CURE)

“CURE was involved with a 1993 proposal of a US Executive Order on regulatory reform that addressed, among other things, risk assessment,” according to Norbert Hirschhorn and Stella A. Bialous. Its members included electronic, paper, plastics, and beverage industries, and it was supported by Philip Morris, with at least $100,000. Its campaign in the early 1990s involved coordinating efforts by a variety of organizations aimed at “questioning the risk factors of federal agencies.”  Among the groups that CURE worked with were TASSC (The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition), Federal Focus, which worked on targeting local officials and unfunded mandates. The aim appears to have been to cultivate support among state and local officials for a challenge to federal risk assessment policies.

The 1993 Executive Order proposal backed by the groups included “principles of sound science, cost-benefit analysis and the use of risk-assessment for regulatory prioritization.” Philip Morris hoped that “inconsistency language” in the proposal would help reopen the Environmental Tobacco Smoke Risk Assessment. At White House meetings on the Executive Order, CURE was represented by The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc.

Source: Norbert Hirschhorn and Stella A. Bialous, “Second hand Smoke and Risk Assessment: What Was in it for the Tobacco Industry?” Tobacco Control 10 (2001): 375-382, 379