Phantom Risk: Scientific Inference and the Law

Foster, Kenneth R.; Bernstein, David E.

ISBN 10: 0262061562 / ISBN 13: 9780262061568

Published by MIT Press, 1993

About this Item

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.

Seller Inventory # 007028

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Phantom Risk: Scientific Inference and the Law
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262061562
• ISBN 13: 9780262061568
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Kenneth R. Foster is Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania.