A review of legal and policy issues in legislating compensation for victims of toxic substance pollution

Stephen M Soble and Janis H Brennan

Social Science & Medicine, 1988, vol. 27, issue 10, 1061-1070

Abstract: Despite the actual and potential effects of toxic substance pollution upon human health, the United States Congress has never enacted a comprehensive victim compensation system. The approach of the Congress, to date, has been limited by a concern about legislating on a topic fraught with scientific uncertainty--the actual causation of injury or death by toxic substance pollution Individuals who believe they have been injured by toxic substances often bring their claims in state courts, where they face the difficult task of proving causation. Industry is principally concerned with the high cost of a compensation system, not the public health issue of scientific causation. From a policy standpoint, legislation is needed that produces information and standards on causation which assist both victims and industry. Congress has the opportunity to craft legislation that will deal rationally with an epic problem. To do so, however, the Congress must recognize scientific uncertainty as an omnipresent element of causation in cases of toxic substance pollution. This starting point, a comprehensive system of compensating victims of toxic substance pollution, can be drafted to address the values of data collection, data interpretation, prevention, conservation of economic resources, and fairness.

Keywords: toxic; substance; pollution; victim; compensation; causation; law; and; legislation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1988
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(88)90301-2
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:27:y:1988:i:10:p:1061-1070

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().