Punishment for unknown deaths

Over recent days I have been following another story about inconvenient evidence colliding with politics: the drama surrounding the EPA report about perchlorate levels in water. I think that information about serious public health issues should be openly circulated to give society the wherewithal to properly judge public officials' handling of them.

Concealing information about water safety that may affect many reminds me of other acts such as Republican state governors' refusal of Federal healthcare money or those complicit in the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal. In many of these cases, while it is difficult to point to specific instances of injury it is nonetheless possible to be confident that many people were significantly harmed, even had their lives shortened.

I wonder if the punishment for this kind of mendacious, deleterious act matches the severity. It seems that politicians, managers, etc. knowingly cause serious widespread physical harm but because we do not have some direct violent act against a known person not much happens, maybe they even just lose their job. If this difference indeed exists then I wonder if it is a social issue or more of a technical, legal one.