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59 Mich. L. Rev. 259 (1960-1961)
Radiation Injuries and Statistics: The Need for a New Approach to Injury Litigation

handle is hein.journals/mlr59 and id is 277 raw text is: RADIATION INJURIES AND STATISTICS:
THE NEED FOR A
NEW APPROACH TO INJURY LITIGATIONt
Samuel D. Estep*
In dedicating this effort to Dean Stason I wish to acknowledge that his pioneering
foresight in this area where law and technology mix was responsible for my own
interest and publications on atomic energy legal problems. I wish to give credit to
Dean Stason for showing the way as well as giving much wise counsel in the course
of our joint research publications. At the same time I must absolve him of any
responsibility for whatever shortcomings this article and the idea here discussed may
have. - S.D.E.
T      HE emphasis given by the mass media of communication to
some of the dramatic problems arising from            the use of nuclear
energy unfortunately has diverted attention from some of the mat-
ters about which something can be done by lawyers, administra-
tors, and legislators without the necessity of complicated interna-
tional negotiations between various parties to the Cold War.
The headlines leave the uninformed, and perhaps often also the
informed, public with the impression that even for radiation in-
juries the important problems all deal with such questions as:
(1) Will only a few or many millions of people survive an all-out
nuclear war? (2) Will the fallout from nuclear weapons testing
cause no, a few, or hundreds of thousands of cases of leukemia and
similar diseases among the populations of the world?
Leaving aside the difficulties connected with nuclear warfare
and considering only those involved in peaceful uses of atomic
energy, the attention of the general public and even of government
officials usually is directed to such questions as these:
(1) Should nuclear reactors, whether on land or in ships, be
permitted close to large population centers?
(2) What type of licensing, inspection, and operating pro-
cedures should be followed to protect the public and
t The ideas here presented were first discussed in a paper delivered at an International
Symposium on. Legal and Administrative Problems of Protection in the Peaceful Uses of
Atomic Energy, sponsored by Euratom in Brussels, Belgium, in September 1960. The
paper there delivered is being published by Euratom as a part of the proceedings of the
Symposium.
I gratefully acknowledge the financial support for the research on which this article is
based which was made possible by a grant from the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project
of the University of Michigan. I also wish to express my indebtedness to my research
assistant, Martin Adelman, particularly for the mathematical calculations upon which the
analysis and conclusions are based.
* Professor of Law, University of Michigan.- Ed.

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