Posted by David Bernstein:
Asbestos Fraud:
From [1]Healthfactsandfears.com:
A recent study comparing x-ray analyses of asbestos-related lung
damage revealed some troublesome results. An alarming discrepancy
was found between conclusions drawn by physicians (certified
experts called B-readers) hired by the plaintiff's lawyers and
those drawn by unaffiliated physicians who reviewed the same
x-rays...
The results: the plaintiffs' B-readers reported that 95.9% of 492
chest x-rays had possible asbestos-related lung damage, the
unaffiliated doctors found that only 4.5% of them showed possible
damage. The enormous discrepancy between evaluations has called
into question the system under which scientific evidence is
presented in court cases.
The original study appears in the August 4th issue of Academic
Radiology. I've written about the problems with junk science evidence
in the asbestos litigation, including problems with "B-readers,"
[2]here.
References
1. http://acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.429/news_detail.asp
2. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=521082
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://highsorcery.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
