One way that you can identify rent-seeking disguised as safety is to compare the degree of risk considered acceptable across industries. For example, you can buy and use a chainsaw and similarly-dangerous power tools with basically no constraints whatsoever. But chainsaws are definitely more dangerous than CPAP machines or many prescription-only drugs. I'm sure that professional tree clearing companies would like it if everyone except them was banned from engaging in their line of work, but that's not the case because they have less effective lobbyists than doctors have.