Subject: Insurance nightmare (fwd)
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 1997 083322 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@mail.llion.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <emf-l@mail.llion.org>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 1997 22:26:09 +1000
From: Don Maisch
Subject: Insurance nightmare
Major Swiss Insurance Firm Issues Warning to Insurance Industry
On February 20, 1997 the Swiss insurance firm of Swiss Re announced a new
publication " Electrosmog - a phantom risk" which raises serious concerns
as to the exposure of the insurance industry to future liability for claims
from "electrosmog". This can be defined as environmental pollution from
electromagnetic fields from a wide range of sources, such as powerlines,
electrical sub stations, work places, electrical equipment, etc.
Though not directly mentioned in the press release, the legal and
insurance implications also may well apply to telecommunications.
Up to now, the prevailing legal opinion on litigation cases involving
adverse health claims from exposure to electromagnetic fields, (EMFs) such
as cancer and other diseases identified in the scientific literature, is
that the electrical engineering and power industries can only be held
liable if science provides conclusive proof that weak electromagnetic
fields impair health.
To quote from Swiss Re's press release:
"Swiss Re's new publication "Electrosmog - a phantom risk" comes to the
opposite conclusion and shows that, on the basis of present knowledge
alone, it must be expected that plaintiffs will win suits dealing with this
issue. the crucial question in this respect is not what results EMF
research will yield in the foreseeable future, but how society will
evaluate such conjecture.
For the insurance industry, this situation gives rise to an extremely
dangerous risk of change composed of two parts. First, the classical
development risk, that is, the possibility that new research findings will
demonstrate electromagnetic fields to be more dangerous than has hitherto
been assumed. Second, the socialpolitical risk of change, in other words,
the possibility that changing social values could result in scientific
findings being evaluated differently than they have been thus far.
The direction of this change is outlined by the gradual transition of
liability law from its original form of fault liability, through strict or
absolute liability, to the liability - in part already practiced - of mere
presumption or suspicion. The EMF problem is more dangerous and more
threatening for the insurance industry than has generally been supposed -
due not to the incalculably small health risks, but to the incalculably
great risk of socialpolitical change.
>From the insurance point of view, the EMF issue is a typical example of
what has become known as a phantom risk: that is, a prospective hazard,
the magnitude of which cannot be gauged and which perhaps does not even
exist, but which is nonetheless real - if only in that it causes anxiety
and provokes legal actions.
With "Electrosmog - a phantom risk" Swiss RE intends to contribute to a
forward-looking discussion of pragmatic and feasible solutions. The
publication is available in German, English and French. Orders for
additional copies can be placed with; Swiss Re, Public Relations, P.O. Box,
CH-8022 Zurich; Fax: 0011-41 1 285 2023"
Contact person:
Fredy Schibli, Swiss Re, Knowledge Transfer Section, Tel: 0011-41 1 285 3424
Zurich, 20 February 1997
EMFacts Information Service
PO Box 96, North Hobart
Tasmania
PH: (03) 6243 0195 Fax: (03) 6243 0340
**home page** http://www.tassie.net.au/emfacts/
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html