>Actually I'm pretty sure that is in fact how safety regulations work.

Of course the number "check out". Industry regulations are typically ghost written by some combination of industry groups, lobbying groups and academia. Who funds those? The industry either being regulated or industry that stands to benefit if some other industry is regulated.

80-100yr ago if you were inclined to screech about fire safety you'd have been citing numbers funded by the.... wait for it.... asbestos industry.

>hence we have democracy.

Democracy is a system for ensuring stable-ish power transfers by giving the people some semblance of control over the process and little more.