ABSTRACT
The silver lining to the tragedy was the international spotlight it placed on chemical hazards and on the multinational companies sometimes implicated in generating them. Bhopal, world attention was once again focused on international toxic threats when a string of high-profile attempts to export hazardous waste received widespread publicity. Developing countries are particularly vulnerable to health and environmental damage from pesticides, as many of them lack the regulatory mechanisms needed to evaluate risks thoroughly or to ensure that chemicals are used according to instructions. Developing countries often argued that pollution was the price of progress. The long-range transport of hazardous substances leads to the ironic result that people and wildlife in some of the world’s most remote places are being exposed to some of the highest levels of chemical contamination anywhere on Earth. Not only is trade in hazardous products thriving, but recent decades have also seen hazardous industries themselves become widely dispersed around the planet.
