Examining Helena Chemical Company by Using a “Rawlsian Lens”
At the turn of the 21st century, the already vulnerable residents of Mesquite, NM, were receiving an unequal distribution of air, water and other types of pollution because of a nearby multinational company called Helena Chemical. I will examine Helena Chemical Company by using justice theory, considering vulnerability and examining cases between the Mesquite community and Helena Chemical.
The majority of people living in Mesquite are a vulnerable population. The most vulnerable groups are distinguished by researchers, Gochfeld and Burger as usually being minority and low-income populations, because they are most likely to have potentially higher exposure to environmental pollution, as well as a high susceptibility to the negative effects from this exposure of toxins. According to political writer, Hamida Kinge, almost half of Mesquite's residents live below the poverty line, and a mere 7.5 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher (YEAR). Mesquite is a 95 percent Hispanic community, with most of its citizens holding working-class jobs asserted Lisa Jackson, past administrator of the EPA. The reason behind high risk factors for vulnerable groups is unequally distributed environmental harm (Gochfeld and Burger YEAR). Mesquite, New Mexico is a very small town, and is not big enough to be known to most people outside of the New Mexico-Mexico border area. Besides a few restaurants, grocery stores and local shops, one of the biggest employers in Mesquite is the Helena Chemical Company. Helena Chemical employs 40 people of the town's 1500 people, in order to store and sell fertilizers and pesticides to local farmers (Jackson).
The community of Mesquite had growing concern...
... middle of paper ...
...of action. If they were using reflective Equilibrium they would not have known how their decisions and actions would affect them when they selected it. Because of human nature, as well as companies, like Helena, becoming greedy and selfish, too much emphasis is placed on reason, rather than the safety, justice and well-being of others. If Helena were to remove their preconceived notions of wanting to increase profit at the cost of others, they may be able to put themselves in the shoes of the townfolk who live nearby the pollution.
The amount of air and water pollution Helena Chemical had cost the disadvantaged and vulnerable population of Mesquite, and the way the company has handled its practices are unethical. Rawl's theory of justice also proves Helena Chemical has made many unethical and unfair decisions in regard to the vulnerable residents of Mesquite, NM.
The Grassy Narrows people have a long, deeply rooted history in the environmental justices movement. Rodgers (2009) points to a number of environmental justice struggles such as the fight against the harmful effects of mercury poisoning and the Minamata disease associated with it (para. 1-3), the Ontario Hydro dams that destroyed part of the wild rice harvest and degraded the habitat of fish and fur animals, as well as the displacement of the community (due to relocation into prefabricated houses where electricity and running water were promised) and the culture shock it created (para. 4). He also discusses the successful blockade in 2002, which is the longest-lasting blockade in Canadian history (para. 28)—an example that shows how employing legal methods were critical in the struggle against environmental injustices for this community. There are a number of other issues that will be discussed in the following paragraphs; the above are just a few of the injustices the Grassy Narrows community face.
Solis, Hilda. “Environmental Justice: An Unalienable Right for All.” Human Rights 30 (2003): 5-6. JSTOR. Web. 13 February 2014.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. is the fourteenth largest retailer in America, and overall the world’s second largest home improvement retailer. They are the 108th ranked corporation on the Fortune 500 top corporations list. With an impressive in store stock of 40,000 home improvement items on hand, ranging from lumber to Home décor items, plus an additional 400,000 home improvement items available through a special order program. Lowe’s provides a onetime stop for all home improvement needs, for both the Do-It-Yourselfer, and the ever-expanding market of the Commercial Business Customer.
Exxon/Mobil, one of the nation’s leading oil producers, has its main refinery located in Beaumont, Texas. Each year, the residents of Beaumont/Port Arthur have to contend with the 39,000 pounds of pollution spewed each year by the Exxon refinery. Exxon’s emissions are 385% above the state refinery average. In 1999, the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Committee (TNRCC) allowed the plant to increase their emissions, without allowing the public to have a say in the matter. Interestingly, 95% of the people living near the plant are of African American descent and are in the poverty range. Some believe that this, along with the lack of education in the area, allows Exxon to get away with such high emissions. Residents in nearby neighborhoods have been complaining of headaches, nausea, eye, and throat irritation for years. Since 1997, Mobil has repeatedly violated health standards in its emissions of two key air pollutants: sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, These “rotten egg” smells are so strong, one can smell it through a car driving past the refinery. After numerous complaints and one record of a refinery worker becoming unconscious because of the fumes, the EPA awarded Exxon with a $100,000 environmental justice grant in October of 1998. Hopefully, Exxon has put the money to good use and cleaned up their emissions.
What is interesting is that a national report found racial demographics were the number one predictor of where hazardous waste facilities were located across the United States (OSCE, 2011). In the U.S. non-white communities are disproportionately exposed to environmental risks and they do not have a voice in the development and implementation of environmental laws and regulations (OSCE, 2011). In the Ted Talk video “Greening the Ghetto” Majora Carter wants people to realize that race and class do play a role in where waste sites are placed, but also where nice parks and trees are. Environmental racism is not just a problem in the United States, but exists in Canada as well. For instance, Nova Scotia’s Africville a community of African slaves until the industrial boom, which led to Africville becoming a new dumping site for waste (OSCE, 2011).
Shriver, Thomas, and Gary Webb. “Rethinking the Scope of Environmental Injustice: Perceptions of Health Hazards in Rural Native American Community Exposed to Carbon Black.” Rural Sociology 74.2 (2009): 270-292. EBSCO Host. Web. 12 December, 2009.
Distributive justice is concerned with equality in treatments, benefits, burdens, and individual rights. The concept is to treat people equally and fairly. In order for this to be applied in any scenario, even “The Oil Rig” case, individual factors must be examined and addressed accordingly. From the perspective of those living within the oil rig, the difference in living qualities and treatment or acceptable and no one is raising any flags about unequal treatment or injustice. From an outsider’s perspective, the treatment of the Angolan workers is unethical and unjustifiable. The principles of being treated equally and fairly are not met in this case and their living conditions need to be reexamined and addressed to meet the requirements of distributive
They try to prove that the emission of chemicals from the Shell company are actually hazardous and are released at unsafe concentrations. With respect to the Ecological Model of health, the focus here is the relationship between the citizens and their environment, so any change in the environment can affect the health of citizens (Drummer. 2008). Another focus is the location relative to the Shell company that is an issue. The residents of this town are faced with health problems due to the location of the Shell company, which enforces that Health Geography is a big influence here (Drummer. 2003). Citizens within the Diamond community report increasing rates of asthma in children, along with machines in their house to help prevent/cope with allergies. The location plays a major role as to why these negative health effects are occurring since the chemical plant is emitting these chemicals nearby. When the air was tested, multiple chemicals were found but one that stood out was Benzene which is known to have cancer causing effects (WHO. 2018). Even with this knowledge, the Shell company continued to claim that the living conditions within this city were adequate (Grunberg.
...ty. It is available to reflect the social values of a society such as new concepts of justice. The law Reform Commission of Canada is persistently submitting legal proposals that can be used to improve a society and it also serves as a crucial role to the structure of law and the government and the Canadian Criminal Justice System. A proposal that has drawn a lot of debate is the idea of whether environmental destruction and maltreatment should be criminalized. After examining the given themes, environmental harm should not be considered a crime. The undesirable outcomes of criminalizing environmental harm outweigh the positives of criminalizing such a reform. Although the environment affects people’s lives, so do the laws and regulations. This crime is too broad and may result in more harm than good in the Canadian society and the Canadian Criminal Justice System.
...exico Communities: The Struggle for Environmental Justice." Human Rights 30.4 (2003): 23-25. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Due to longer life expectancy and the rapid increase of the world’s population, the pharmaceutical industry is becoming increasingly important. The problem of aging population and high healthcare cost is particularly serious in Japan. This essay will focus on a Japanese drug maker – Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda, the company). First, in order to provide background information, the current business model and relevant information of Takeda will be outlined and analysed based on financial data and the company’s annual reports. Second, the essay will examine the most significant challenges that the company has faced over the past five years, including the cause and effect behind this challenges. Finally, the discussion will be looking at the pharmaceutical industry as a whole, exploring the merger and acquisition activities of large pharmaceutical firms in the world, i.e. Big Pharma.
Most Americans conjure imagery of a planet replete with pristine wilderness, crystal blue oceans, fresh air, and verdant forests when they think about the natural environment. In recent decades, this description is becoming increasingly applicable only to certain areas of the United States because poor and minority communities are overwhelmingly subjected to dangerous environmental hazards. As such, the concept of environmental racism has become a major issue affecting every aspect of their lives because of their placement and proximity to environmentally dangerous areas such as landfills, toxic waste sites, and other forms of pollution. The environmental justice movement seeks to remedy this problem by recognizing the direct link between economic, environmental, race, and health issues. The biggest aim of environmental justice is for all people to live, work, and play in clean, and environmentally safe communities. However, in mainstream American environmentalism, poor and minority communities are typically ignored in environmental communication because their white counterparts dominate the discourse. Recent scholarship suggests that people of color play a crucial role in fighting environmental discrimination because their cultural traditions, experiences, and histories allow them to uniquely communicate environmental risk and health concerns within their communities.
Utilitarianism is based on equality and utility as well as on the hedonistic versions of utilitarianism that distribute pleasure and pain or happiness and unhappiness. In the paper, Savior of the Goobians, Alex Bokhart discusses how a utilitarian approach can resolve the environmental injustices that are being experienced by a particular population (Bokhart, 2016). For through a utilitarian approach one can determine the vulnerability and need elements for each different recipient of environmental justice through weighing the basic pros and cons of, in this case study, the implementation of the Keystone XL pipeline. While Utilitarianism worked well in that particular paper, Bokhart’s case study was analyzing environmental pollution on the whole human race of a planet. Therefore, the pros and cons were much simpler unlike our specialized case between two communities within the whole human race: Native Americans and other U.S. Citizens and
Johnson & Johnson is a successful company in the health industry : Johnson & Johnson a company that, through the years, has been diversifying and expanding worldwide as leader in the market for health products , consumer, professional , ethical pharmaceuticals and industrial . The vision is "To be the world's most successful company in the healthcare , prioritizing the needs of the people " their corporate philosophy is having Responsibility for internal, external customers and Justice for Suppliers and distributors, with a Commitment to the shareholders and Respect for environmental protection and natural resources
PROBLEM STATEMENT Teva Pharmaceuticals, the first multinational pharmaceutical company in Israel, has become a successful global giant in the industry of generic drugs. After experiencing a long period of success and growth in the generic drug industry against some big western pharmaceuticals, the company had acquired many well known pharmaceutical companies and had achieved its goal of $1 billion. theory seemed to be in trouble in building a new strategy and vision to compete with the rapidly growing generic industry. They confronted two big issues as key hurdles in their way.