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OCR for page 77
Part 2
Equity and
Compensation
The five papers in this section discuss fairness in the management
of technological hazards. The authors approach the issue from differ-
ent perspectives, but in each case the ultimate goal is to define an
outcome that represents, or a process that leads to, equitable distribu-
tion of the risks and benefits of hazardous technologies.
Eula gingham reviews genetic and life-history factors that contrib-
ute to hypersusceptibility and the screening and monitoring proce-
dures used-to identify individuals who are hypersusceptible to occu-
pational hazards. She argues that society has an ethical obligation to
provide all persons equal protection against avoidable health hazards.
gingham recognizes, however, that economic or technical constraints
may require industries to adopt special protective measures for hyper-
susceptible workers; she defines three criteria that fair measures must
meet. She concludes her essay with the caution that the most difficult
task in providing special consideration for hypersusceptible workers
will be to balance the right of protection from hazards with the right of
access to jobs.
Papers by Peter W. Huber and Daniel S. Hoffman discuss equitable
legal remedies for victims of hazardous technologies. Huber
describes the "Bhopalization" of American tort law a shift in the
focus of U. S. tort law from "private" to "public" risks. He attributes
this shift to an increasing regulatory and judicial reliance on uncertain
77
OCR for page 78
78
INTRODUCTION TO PORT 2
data in assigning causation for particular outcomes to specific haz-
ards. Huber argues that judicial compensation for hazard victims is
inefficient and inequitable because of the shift in tort law. He pro-
poses that decisions about compensation reside in administrative
agencies and suggests several models upon which such a scheme
could be based. While Hoffman is also concerned about equitable
compensation for hazard victims, instead of suggesting that these
decisions are inappropriately located in the courts, he recommends
changing the factors that determine legal duty. Huber and Hoffman
also disagree about legal remedies to ensure equitable distribution of
penalties among potentially responsible parties. Hoffman insists that
there should be mandatory allocation of damages among responsible
parties, while Huber vigorously opposes a "proportional causation"
rule of liability.
The final two papers in Part 2 discuss fairness in the siting of
hazardous facilities. Roger E. Kasperson presents an introduction to
this topic, outlining key problems in siting decisions, providing a
critique of approaches to siting hazardous facilities, and identifying
the necessary components of a fairness-centered approach to this
problem. He, like gingham, suggests that current geographic and
demographic distributions of risk from technological hazards are not
equitable. Howard C. Kunreuther describes incentive and compensa-
tion systems that may be useful in siting facilities that present high-
consequence, Tow-probability risks. But Kasperson and Kunreuther
disagree about fairness in the allocation of resources between prevent-
ing and compensating for hazards. Kunreuther argues that compensa-
tioncanbe substituted for risk reduction. Kasperson, however, argues
that compensation cannot restore potential victims to the condition
they enjoyed before the hazard existed; thus, fairness requires that
regulators first reduce hazards to the lowest practicable level before
attempting to compensate potential victims.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
potential victims
