The solution IMHO to have a climate of non-corruption (US) generally combined with enough pay already for regulators to not be easily swayed, and hopefully hire people who have different motivators than money in life, and actually jail for real people who violate this (too many abuses, particularly on Wall Street, go by without the true punishment it deserves).
Despite existing corruption, I do believe the FDA is less corrupt than it is corrupt, and for the most part they do have the public good as their primary interest.
My free market comment was more about this theory of self-regulation and trust. Clearly that gets violated time and time again, and here is yet another case to the point of knowingly harming their own employees for decades!
The bigger issue is this non-regulatory environment for so many chemicals. Innocent until proven guilty, especially for thousands of drugs already popular when regulations were enacted (in the 60s?), is just irresponsible. The list of drugs in the blood of the entire pollution just keeps growing... How long before we realize the permanent harm potential?
I get your point, but the situation is not much better in non-free markets as well. Regulators have a price for which they can be captured.