Manville Corporation

[Monty Cantsin]

Manville Corporation

Fifty years ago, the senior management at Manville corporation in the united states had evidence that one of its products, asbestos, caused fatal lung disease. As a meter of policy, management decided to conceal the information from affected employees. The reason? Profits! In court testimony, a lawyer recalled how, in the mid-1940’s, he had questioned Manville corporate counsel about the companies policy of concealing cheat x-ray results from employees. The lawyer asked: do you mean to tlel me you would let them work until they dropped dead? They reply was, ‘yes, we save a lot of money that way’. That might have been ture in the short term, but it certainly was not in the long run. The company was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1982 to protect itself against thousands of potential asbestos- related lawsuits. It emerged from bankruptcy in 1988 but with staggering asbestos related liabilities. The claims proved so overwhelming – the company had to set up a personal injury settlement trust found with $2.6 billion in cash and bonds and the pledge of a certain percentage of future profits- that on 1 april 1996 Manville corporation went out of business permanently

Source Robbins et al. 2000, p. 162

comments?

[Maynard]

Just a random figure but corporate crime is meant to cause 10 times as much financial loss than that caused by robbery, burglary, larceny and auto-theft combined. It could perhaps be even more now and of course , corporate crime is not policed nearly as much as that of "regular' crime.

That company as far as I could tell , still exists today and if you look at their "history" according to them, it appears this scandal wasn't worthy of mention:http://www.jm.com/corporate/56.htm

Their "safety policy" now says "Your safety and the safety of all employees is our first priority and as such, our focus is on preventing all accidents and injuries. All employees are required to assist in assuring an accident-free work environment. Your involvement, participation and understanding are important to achieving our safety goals" Maybe they have learnt there lesson ?


Though according to this web site, they are not alone in making products out of asbestos: http://www.lungcancer.com/companies.htm


As far as I am concerned, I can't see any reason why those managers didn't face murder charges and got what they deserved, because it was just not the employees they did and could have harmed but everyone in contact with it, which would be in the million mark. The only reason why that would be wrong now, would be that it could be potentially bad for business. Corporate crime seems to be "okay" in most governments eyes, because it's for a good cause, making profits.

[Sabocat]

On a similar note, W.R. Grace manufactured a housing insulation called Zonolite. It has similar health risks as asbestos. The U.$. government quashed the issue of an EPA report warning consumers, to protect companies against lawsuits.

W.R Grace was the company also responsible for contaminating the drinking water in a suburb town of Boston a few years ago. Cancer rates for children in that town sky rocketed as a result.

Here's some information on Zonolite:


An Outcry Against Zonolite

The media recently discovered that last April, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was set to issue a national alert about asbestos in Zonolite insulation, but the White House intervened (see White House Squelched Alert on Asbestos Insulation). The announcement would have been included in a declaration of “public emergency,” warning homeowners of the asbestos hazard from Zonolite. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was the agency that pressured the EPA to keep quiet, according to a report in the St. Louis Post–Dispatch (12/27/2002).

http://www.asbestosnetwork.com/news/nw_013...zonolite_ca.htm (http://www.asbestosnetwork.com/news/nw_013103_zonolite_ca.htm)

[SittingBull47]

the quintessential archetype of big business. The Manville Corporation was discovered quite some time ago, but surprisingly not many are calling the company "evil". They'd rather call Microsoft evil, but at least that company isn't directly responsible for the deaths of so many.