ABSTRACT
As one of the few attempts to examine the impact of US exports of hazardous products and industries on developing countries, this book raises serious questions about the responsibilities of the US government, US-based companies and American citizens. In particular, it suggests that those who have long labored and lobbied against industrial and environmental health hazards in the US, as researchers, activists and organizers, and policy makers, must now confront a greatly enlarged arena of activity and markedly more complex, delicate and seemingly overwhelming challenges. The authors here reflect upon their moral and polit~cal responsibilities in this global setting and upon likely tactics and strategies for dealing with these now international problems - problems which have been induced in large part by the actions of US firms and which have perhaps (this remains ambiguous) been exacerbated by regulatory successes at home. This book deals with the full range of issues involved and it would perhaps be useful here at the end, for clarity's sake, to try to distinguish among them. The authors have several different but related concerns, for (1) product safety and consumer protection, (2) the preservation of the environment and the well-being of communities
dependent upon it, and (3) the safeguarding of the occupational health and safety of workers. They worry that, if these remain uncontrolled, (a) the flow of exported hazardous substances (consumer and industrial products) to Third World markets and (b) the flight of US-based hazardous industries (production plant and equipment) to Third World sites might both undermine regulatory efforts at home and pose a serious threat abroad in all three areas of concern.
