ASBESTOS CASE
Summary:
Asbestos
was once considered a “miracle mineral. This naturally occurring silicate
mineral has six varieties and many favorable characteristics,
including resistance to fire, heat, and corrosion. It is strong, durable, and
flexible - its fibers can be woven into cloth. Asbestos is
inexpensive because it is available in abundant quantities. But the main
problem arises when scientific study on health problems found out that Asbestos
is a mineral that is toxic, direct and indirect contact or use of materials
will result to diseases and eventually to death. In history 100 million
people in USA were occupationally exposed to Asbestos during the 20th century.
Approximately 100,000 people in the United States have died from asbestos
exposure related to ship building. The United States government and asbestos
industry have been criticized for not acting quickly enough to inform the
public of dangers, and to reduce public exposure. In the late 1970s court
documents proved that asbestos industry officials knew of asbestos dangers
since the 1930s and had concealed them from the public. The same situation
happened to North American Asbestos Corporation, a mining company that is
engaged on asbestos production and creation of products from the mineral. In
industrial era, the main user is asbestos are England, Canada and US. Asbestos
is known to cause lung cancers and diseases, most at danger are the workers who
inhale the small asbestos fibres in the air. The mere act of breathing starts a
cancer time bomb that can take decades to act.
Case Analysis and Reaction to CSR use of
Asbestos
This case particularly tackles environmental and
social concerns or ethical issues about a mineral that is hazardous to human
health but not was immediately acted upon to prevent death of people exposed.
Since 1930‘s it was found out that asbestos is critical to human health and
there is a widespread recognition of the occupational risks of asbestos. But
how come it was continuously used? Is it the economic benefits from the product
obtained that leads slow action to raise social awareness for public safety?
What is the stand of government that was blamed for concealing information to
the public? And mining corporations that are engaged into mining activities
without considering the health of its employees and the consumer? Other
businesses such as manufacturers and insurance companies that were involved in
the spread of asbestos, and has knowledge of the diseases, can we consider them
unethical or it is just a matter of what we called negligence on their part for
not knowing the contents of their product or just a matter of concealing an
epidemic to avoid net lost or bankruptcy? Is it legal?
The
first issue is the concealing of information to the public by the government.
Since the production of products from asbestos is a booming industry that time
and it resulted to more job creations and taxes from manufacturers, government
actions was slow that and later on was proved that industry official concealed
the danger of using asbestos. A controversy to which a regulating body of the
government that supposed to ensure public safety becomes one of the reasons for
the death of people that was exposed to asbestos. It is clearly unethical to
not consider the welfare of the public when the government concealed
information for an industry to which the economy benefited sacrificing the
lives of people, both workers and consumers. To protect the state and its
people is the main concern of the government and the highest form of social
responsibility was not exercised. It becomes a proof that at times, in history,
the economic growth of a country was first to be considered rather than public
safety. In some public litigation, when the court extracted internal documents
from manufactures they found out that a shameless disregard for men and women
was hidden to the public, a history of abuse and deception that leads to claim
of family victims and decision of the court that worker and their families
deserve full compensation for their suffering. The documents are evidence
of a corporate conspiracy to prevent asbestos workers from learning that their
exposure to asbestos could kill them, thus making it a valuable evidence of
manslaughter, unethical and illegal. It is was not considered as negligence on
the part of manufacturers since they have the knowledge of what was happening
and was well documented on their internal records. It is very evident that
manufacturers using asbestos for their product did not developed the concept of
corporate social responsible when they just geared up to maximize profit and
did not consider the health issue on producing their product. The company
capitalized on human exploitation, rather than adopting safety standards,
switch to safer products, or provide protection for workers, these companies
went too far to conceal to workers, to the public and media. Company official
monitored health problems of their employees but then interfered on the result,
redirecting to other causes of the disease and deliberately failed to label, or
altered the labels on products. Intentionally manufacturers deceived the public
and employees becoming the major reason of the number of death that is
remarkable increase because of asbestos long term bad effects on health.
I
can also say that companies capitalized on asbestos diseases, ethical and
illegal, since it is concealed, taking decades to appear after initial
exposure. The period allows companies to use workers for decades, knowing they
were injured and sick and concealing information was a very effective way to
reduce compensation payouts. Even work histories on deceased employees were
deemed top secret, companies pressure outside physicians to remove the word
asbestos on cause of the disease. But is it possible that the result of science
cannot be manipulated since it shows repeatedly the same result on different
places? The industry manipulated results in large successful efforts, other
companies stopped the studies fearing that it will yield the same result. That
is deceiving workers or the employees, but how about the public, its consumer?
They were able to hide the effects of asbestos by way of their marketing
strategies. The reassuring messages that the product is safe and intimidating
tactics to sell the product were effective that consumer patronized the
products without knowing that the contents of the product are hazardous.
Manufacturer’s deceived the public and its employees.
But
the greatest blunt of manufacturers and all that are involved was made by
manipulating the media, as hearsay and words begin to mainstream health and
social news, the industry was able to manipulate and control the flow of
information by saying that industry predicted the death of ten thousand
employees from asbestos disease and then noted the good news that the public is
fully aware of what was happening. Anticipating a government investigation into
its widespread knowledge of the dangers of asbestos, the industry worried
internally and made all their records confidential. But after years of
continuous controversy on asbestos the public protest especially the victims
consistently find asbestos companies guilty, not just of exposing their workers
to a substance that could kill or severely injure them, but of doing this with
full knowledge of the fatal consequences of their actions, and of actively
concealing this truth from these same workers.
