Description :

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 . Phantom risk demonstrates that they are even more susceptible to the inflammatory claims of the apocalyptics particularly illuminating is the chapter by bruce ames and lois swirsky gold both of the university of california at berkeley they survey eight major misconceptions regarding the risk of cancer from pollution. Role in the courtroom the admissibility of scientific evidencei 4 andthe theories of liability where injury results from man made technologies phantom risk scientific inference and the lawphantom r sk a new book by the manhattan institute fillsla noteworthy void in these legal. Phantom risk litigation is in part the cost of a legal system that grants broad access to the courts and which gives attorneys financial incentives to file speculative litigation it is also in part an unavoidable result of scientific uncertainty. Phantom risk will be of interest to those who seek to understand the nature of scientific risk assessment and relation of risk to legal liability this work is divided into seventeen chapters and a final conclusion