This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by MARKOWITZ, G. Articles by ROSNER, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Corporate Responsibility for Toxins

Department of Thematic Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and City University of New York Graduate Center

DAVID ROSNER

Columbia University and Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health

From the beginning of its history, industry has responded to calls for government regulation by arguing that voluntary compliance was sufficient to ensure that it acted responsibly. Here we outline three cases that raise broad policy questions concerning the degree to which we can trust industry to control its own behavior with regard to industrial pollutants. First, we outline the experience of Americans with the lead industry, the producer of a well-known industrial toxin. Second, we look at the silica-using industries, whose central mineral caused innumerable deaths and disabilities to exposed workers in the 1930s. Finally, we trace the efforts of the plastics industry to keep knowledge about the carcinogenic potential of vinyl chloride secret from the government.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?