In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Peter Orszag, Mr Obama's former budget director, disparaged any deficit-reduction action that premises future legislative action on a failsafe mechanism.

While a majority of countries have taken little or no action yet, some 30 nations have introduced legislative steps to control smoking abuse.

Industrial noise, for example, is a much more exact science, as you are interested in assessing specific noise levels and relating these to legislative or action levels.