What Is a de Minimis Risk?

The de minimis principle prescribes that decision makers ought to ignore sufficiently improbable risks in the decision-making process. In this paper we discuss three popular explications of this principle, and argue that none of these is satisfactory. It is concluded that the concept of negligible risk is vague, ie that there is no sharp line to be drawn between negligible and non-negligible risks.

[1]  R. Kasperson,et al.  The Social Amplification of Risk , 2003 .

[2]  Baruch Fischhoff,et al.  Perceived risk: psychological factors and social implications , 1981, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[3]  Kristin Shrader-Frechette,et al.  Technological risk and small probabilities , 1985 .

[4]  S. Hrudey,et al.  Is there a safe level of exposure to a carcinogen? , 1995, Environmental science & technology.

[5]  Sven Ove Hansson.  The Moral Significance of Indetectable Effects , 1999 .

[6]  K. Shrader-Frechette.  Risk and Rationality: Philosophical Foundations for Populist Reforms , 1991 .

[7]  K. Mosler.  De minimis and equity in risk , 1997 .

[8]  J Mumpower,et al.  An analysis of the de minimis strategy for risk management. , 1986, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[9]  G W Suter,et al.  An approach for balancing health and ecological risks at hazardous waste sites. , 1995, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[10]  Nicholas Rescher,et al.  Risk : a philosophical introduction to the theory of risk evaluation and management , 1983 .

[11]  W S Pease,et al.  The role of cancer risk in the regulation of industrial pollution. , 1992, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[12]  T. Troxell,et al.  Carcinogenic Potencies and Establishment of a Threshold of Regulation for Food Contact Substances , 1987 .

[13]  A. Stern.  Derivation of a target concentration of Pb in soil based on elevation of adult blood pressure. , 1995, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[14]  C L Comar,et al.  Risk: a pragmatic de minimis approach. , 1979, Science.

[15]  Geoff Royston,et al.  Personal paper: Risk language and dialects , 1997 .