Phantom Risk: Scientific Inference and the Law

Foster, Kenneth R.; Bernstein, David E.

ISBN 10: 0262061562 / ISBN 13: 9780262061568

Editore: MIT Press, 1993

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Like new hardcover book with dust jacket that has some edge wear. No underlining, highlighting, margin notes, or former owner's name. Phantom risks are those whose very existence is unproven and perhaps unprovable, yet they raise real problems at the interface of science and the law. This book focuses on the great disparity between the scientific evidence that is sufficient to arouse public fears and that needed to establish a hazard or its absence, these original contributions probe the problem of scientific ambiguity in risk assessment, and the mayhem this creates in drawing lines concerning liability under our legal system. The authors examine the use of science to detect and evaluate risks, they recognize the difficulty of inferring cause-and-effect relationships from epidemiological (observational) evidence and of inferring risks to humans from high-dose animal experiments, the two major sources of evidence. In the concluding chapters the authors suggest how the presence of phantom risk in legal decision making can be reduced. 3rd printing. Current list price: $85.00.

Codice articolo 007028

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Phantom Risk: Scientific Inference and the Law
• Editore: MIT Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 1993
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0262061562
• ISBN 13: 9780262061568
• Rilegatura: Hard Cover
• Edizione: 1st Edition
• Condizione: As New
• Condizione della sovraccoperta: Near Fine
• Cataloghi dei venditori:
  • Science

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Phantom risks are risks whose very existence is unproven and perhaps unprovable, yet they raise real problems at the interface of science and the law. Phantom Risk surveys a dozen scientific issues that have led to public controversy and litigation - among them, miscarriage from the use of video display terminals, birth defects in children whose mothers used the drug Bendectin, and cancer from low-intensity magnetic fields, and from airborne asbestos. It presents the scientific evidence behind these and other issues and summarizes the resulting litigation.

Focusing on the great disparity between the scientific evidence that is sufficient to arouse public fears and that needed to establish a hazard or its absence, these original contributions probe the problem of scientific ambiguity in risk assessment, and the mayhem this creates in the courtroom.

Although the authors are clearly optimistic about the use of science to detect and evaluate risks, they recognize the difficulty of inferring cause-and-effect relationships from epidemiological (observational) evidence and of inferring risks to humans from high-dose animal experiments, the two major sources of evidence. The final chapter reviews the exceptionally difficult problem of how the legal impact of disputes about phantom risks can be reduced.

L'autore

David E. Bernstein is an attorney at the law firm of Crowell & Moring.