ABSTRACT
Beyond requirements to prevent industrially caused diseases stand the laws to return compensation to the victims. Workers' compensation may not be a very effective system for caring for most victims of occupational disease, but even a minimal compensation system takes its toll in a hazardous industry, from the standpoint of cost. Pollution episodes that cause environmental and economic devastation, like kepone in Virginia, can cost more in damage suits than the business was ever worth in profits. But this has all been said before. 2
There is no dispute that technology continuously adapts to such forces as environmental regulation and energy scarcity. Levenstein and Eller join others in citing the resourcefulness of the petrochemical industry in complying with vinyl chloride standards. However, the technological "fix" that pays for itself in product recovery, reduced labor costs, and so on is the exception, not the rule.
