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A quarter century after the disaster at Bhopal, toxic chemicals continue to threaten lives in the developing world. Chemical spills poison Chinese rivers. Toxic waste sickens people in West Africa. What can be done to safeguard the public in developing countries? What role can consumers and investors in the developed world play? In the World Science Forum we talk to Henrik Selin. He’s a professor of international relations at Boston University.
- World Science Forum: Preventing Future Bhopals
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I think that the International Labor Organization ought to be re-named the Irrelevant Labor Organization after listening to your interview w/ Henrik Selim yesterday. I’m sure that he said that there are absolutely no standards for industrial processes that could be dangerous.
I have made the argument a dozen times (frankly, the ILO rarely comes up in conversation!) that these “exposure limits” and recommendations governing hazardous industrial processes are a bit of joke; only about 2% of the world’s workers benefit b/c the only ones who know about the standards are those hyper-organized trade unions that pushed for them in Geneva.