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. Thus phantom risk is arguably miscarriage resulting from work at video display terminals birth defects in children caused by the mothers use of the drug bendectin cancer from magnetic fields lung cancer produced by the very slight levels of airborne asbestos in buildings with intact asbestos insulation or cancer resulting from a slip and fall in a grocery store. 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 is a collection of scientific articles that discuss occupational or environmental health hazards that have been the focus of tort litigation for example dioxin asbestos and electromagnetic radiation