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- Sandin, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Precautionary defaults - A new strategy for chemical risk management
- 2004
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Ingår i: Human and Ecological Risk Assessment. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1080-7039 .- 1549-7860. ; 10, s. 1-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In order to give adequate support to risk managers, new risk assessment methods should be developed that are (1) scientifically sound, (2) simplified, and (3) suited for precautionary risk management. In this Perspective we propose that the notion of a precautionary default can be a useful tool in the development of such methods. A precautionary default is a cautious or pessimistic assumption that is used in the absence of adequate information and that should be replaced when such information is obtained. Furthermore, we point out some promising research areas for the development of such indicators, viz. connections between chemical characteristics such as persistence and effect parameters, monitoring of contaminants in polar regions, monitoring of contaminants in breast milk, application of results from (human) toxicology in ecotoxicology and vice versa, (eco) toxicological test systems that are sensitive to effects on reproduction, and the application of bioinformatic methods to complex data, both in genomic research and in ecotoxicology. We conclude that precautionary decision-making does not require less science, but to the contrary it requires more science and improved communication between scientists and risk managers.
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| 2. |
- Sjoberg, L., et al.
(författare)
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Neglected and overemphasized risks : the opinions of risk professionals
- 2005
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Ingår i: Journal of Risk Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1366-9877 .- 1466-4461. ; 8:08-jul, s. 599-616
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research on risks has mainly been devoted to detailed analyses of such risks that are subject to public debate and policy decision making. However, many if not most of the risks that are now the subject of regulation were once neglected. Experts in conjunction with regulators have a crucial role in putting risks on the policy agenda. But what views do experts have on the matter of attention to risks? In order to answer this question risk assessment experts were asked to list the risks they considered to be over-emphasized, respectively neglected. Radiation risks constituted the largest category of risks reported to be over-emphasized. Other risks often reported to be over-emphasized included BSE, GMOs, amalgam, and air traffic. Lifestyle risks were the largest category of risks reported to be neglected. Other risks often listed as neglected included radon (as an exception within the radiation category), road traffic, socio-economic risks, energy production excluding nuclear power, and local accidents (including fires and workplace accidents). Risks mentioned about equally often as neglected and over-emphasized included chemicals and crime. There was a correlation between perceived risk and neglect: risks considered to be neglected were also judged as larger. For a comparison, the topics of articles in the journal Risk Analysis from 1991-2000 were categorized into the same risk categories that were used for the questionnaire. The risks most commonly treated in the journal (chemicals and cancer) coincided with the risks which experts in our survey considered to be overemphasized rather than neglected.
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| 3. |
- Grill, Kalle, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Epistemic Paternalism in Public Health
- 2005
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Ingår i: Journal of Medical Ethics. - London : BMJ. - 0306-6800 .- 1473-4257. ; 31:11, s. 648-653
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Receiving information about threats to one’s health can contribute to anxiety and depression. In contemporary medical ethics there is considerable consensus that patient autonomy, or the patient’s right to know, in most cases outweighs these negative effects of information. Worry about the detrimental effects of information has, however, been voiced in relation to public health more generally. In particular, information about uncertain threats to public health, from—for example, chemicals—are said to entail social costs that have not been given due consideration. This criticism implies a consequentialist argument for withholding such information from the public in their own best interest. In evaluating the argument for this kind of epistemic paternalism, the consequences of making information available must be compared to the consequences of withholding it. Consequences that should be considered include epistemic effects, psychological effects, effects on private decisions, and effects on political decisions. After giving due consideration to the possible uses of uncertain information and rebutting the claims that uncertainties imply small risks and that they are especially prone to entail misunderstandings and anxiety, it is concluded that there is a strong case against withholding of information about uncertain threats to public health.
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| 5. |
- Lindblom, Lars, 1971-
(författare)
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The Employment Contract between Ethics and Economics
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates what work ought to be like. The answer it presents consists of an outline of a liberaltheory of justice in the employment contract based on theory developed in the area of political philosophy. Thethesis also examines issues of efficiency—How should measures to improve working conditions be evaluated?—and the ethical implications of the economic theory of employment contracts and the neoclassical theory of themarket. Paper I: A theoretical framework is introduced for the evaluation of workplace inspections with respect totheir effects on working conditions. The choice of a concept of efficiency is discussed, and its relation to criteriafor a good working environment is clarified. It is concluded that in order to obtain reliable information onthe effects of different inspection methods, it is necessary to perform controlled comparative studies in whichdifferent methods are used on different workplaces. Paper II: This article outlines the structure of a Rawlsian theory of justice in the employment relationship.The theory answers three questions about justice and the workplace. What is the relationship between socialjustice and justice at work? How should we conceive of the problem of justice within the economic sphere?And, what is justice in the workplace? Reasons for a specific construction of a local original position are givenand arguments are presented in support of a principle of local justice in the form of a choice egalitarian localdifference principle. Paper III: The political philosophy of John Rawls is applied to the moral dilemma of whistleblowing, andit is shown that that the requirement of loyalty, in the sense that is needed to create this dilemma, is inconsistentwith that theory. In a discussion and rejection of Richard De George’s criteria on permissible whistleblowing,it is pointed out that the mere rejection of loyalty will not lead to an extreme position; harms can still be takeninto account. Paper IV: The case is made that if contemporary economics of the employment contract is correct, thenin order to explain the existence of employment contracts, we must make the assumption that the contractingparties are attempting to deal with decisiontheoreticignorance. It follows that the course of action that theemployer chooses to take when acting from authority cannot be justified by consent, since the informednesscriterion of consent cannot be satisfied under ignorance. It is then suggested that in order to achieve justificationof acts of authority, there must be in place a real possibility to contest employers’ decisions. Paper V: According to Ronald Dworkin’s theory of equality of resources, mimicking the ideal market fromequal starting points is fair. According to Dworkin, the ideal market should be understood as described in GérardDebreu’s influential work, which implies that we should conceive of trade as taking place under certainty. Thereare no choices under risk in such a market. Therefore, there is no such thing as option luck in the ideal market.Consequently, when mimicking this market, we cannot hold people responsible for option luck. Mimicking thismarket also implies that we ought to set up a social safety net, since rational individuals with perfect foresightwould see to it that they always have sufficient resources at each point in life. Furthermore, the idea of insuranceis incompatible with the ideal market.
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| 6. |
- Hansson, Sven Ove, et al.
(författare)
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Improving the incentives for toxicity testing
- 2003
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Ingår i: Journal of Risk Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1366-9877 .- 1466-4461. ; 6:1, s. 3-21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The legal systems for the classification and labelling of chemical substances have an incentives structure that discourages rather than encourages companies to test their products. This is shown in a logical analysis of the European classification system and also in an analysis of recent changes in the classification of individual substances. Finally two methods to improve the incentives structure are proposed and discussed: the introduction of negative clauses that allow new information to lead to less strict classifications, and a new danger-class and a symbol (a question mark) that indicates serious lack of data.
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| 9. |
- Hansson, Sven Ove, et al.
(författare)
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What is stability?
- 2003
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Ingår i: Synthese. ; 136:2, s. 219-235
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although stability is a central notion in several academic disciplines, the parallels remain unexplored since previous discussions of the concept have been almost exclusively subject-specific. In the literature we have found three basic concepts of stability, that we call constancy, robustness, and resilience. They are all found in both the natural and the social sciences. To analyze the three concepts we introduce a general formal framework in which stability relates to transitions between states. It can then be shown that robustness is a limiting case of resilience, whereas neither constancy nor resilience can be defined in terms of the other. Hence, there are two basic concepts of stability, both of which are used in both the social and the natural sciences. This congruence in the concepts of stability is of particular interest for endeavours to construct models that represent both natural and social phenomena.
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| 10. |
- Hayenhjelm, Madeleine
(författare)
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Trust, risk and vulnerability : towards a philosophy of risk communication
- 2006
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is a philosophical contribution to the theories on risk communication. The topic of risk communication is approached from several different angles, but with a normative focus on equality and vulnerability. Essay I is a comment on risk perception theory and the psychometric model in particular. In risk perception research individual risk taking is described as either a result of valuing the benefits from risk taking or a failure of comprehending the severity or probability of risks. The essay argues that sometimes individuals take risks simply because they are in a vulnerable position and have no other choice. Four factors are identified as crucial in risks from vulnerability: poor outset conditions, lack of reasonable options, hope and liability to disinformation. Essay II addresses the democratic approach to risk communication and the ideal of risk communication as a dialogue between more or less equal stakeholders. The Essay argues that even the more innovative and dialogue oriented approaches to risk communication are unequal. This is often blurred by the confusion between the described ideal and the description of these newer approaches. This inequality is analysed in a three-fold way: influence over the communication process; influence over and access to information; and influence over risk decisions. The Essay develops a typology of different risk communication practices and influence distributions and concludes that the form of risk communication most commonly referred in the literature is the most imbalanced kind where all three types of influence falls to the same party. Essay III explores the concept of trust, an often-mentioned objective for risk communication. The concept of trust is analyzed from previous philosophical approaches, and the idea of trust as comfortable defocusing is introduced. It is argued that not only the gains for the trustee but also the gains and risks for the truster, generally and in the case from risk communication, can be explained by this notion. It is concluded that public trust for institutions or organizations need not be framed on an individual level. Instead, the vulnerability of trusting can be counter-acted by a delegation of different stances, including both control and trust, among different individuals and institutions in society.
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