ABSTRACT
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) generates, among other standards, a series of management standards, particularly the ISO 9000 series on Quality Management and the ISO 14000 series on Environmental Management. Like all other ISO standards, these are referred to as "technical standards" though there is really nothing technical about them. The compliance with environmental laws is not a mandatory test in environmental certification exercises, nor are there any mandatory environmental norms, such as Pollution Prevention, energy use reduction, resource conservation, "throughput" reduction per unit of product, or eco-efficiency. Early in 1997, ISO decided against beginning work on a workplace health and safety management standard. To the extent that ISO has again been kept out of health and safety, this represents a major victory for the public interest. One aim of globalization is to bring every area of economic activity under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
