Silver star chemical Company
Silver star chemical company's new president, Mr, David Santos, has learned that for the past four years the company has been dumping its industrial waste into the local river and falsifying reports to authorities about the levels of suspected cancer-causing materials in that waste. The plant manager says that there is no proof that the waste can cause cancer and there are only few fishing villages within a hundred kilometres downriver. if the company has to treat the substance to neutralize its potentially injurious effects and then transport it to a legal dumpsite, the company's operating costs would rise to a level that might make the firm uncompetitive. if the company loses its competitive advantage, 10,000 local employees could become unemployed and the town's economy might collapes.
Questions
1. What is the ethical dilemma that Mr. Santos, the company president, is facing?
2. Why is environmental pollution a moral issue?
3. If you are the president, what would you do? and why?
4. Cite three other ethical issues that we can find in this case.