Recently the movie the Age of Ultron was viewed whose story among the super heroes was about man’s desire to use technology to help make the world better. There is little doubt that the world is better, however there have been consequences along the way. The book The Polluters – the Making of Our Chemically Altered Environment by Benjamin Ross and Steve Amter published by Oxford University Press, NY, 2010 looks at some of the consequences. In the book, the authors argue the industry had its way for too long and more needs to be done. The jobs the industry has created while desirable are part of the problem. In the US depending on how the world environment or big picture looks – many things have been overlooked. Sometimes chemicals were used because the alternative was worse. For example DDT was invented to combat malaria and lice. It did this and fewer soliders died from malaria which is a good thing. It turns out, similar to many drugs side affects show up years later. The DDT would get into the food system and birds could not hatch eggs because the eggs were too thin. Cancer is linked to the drug. What was more important the soldiers or the environment the soldiers needed to live in afterwards?

Many times the answer to that question is to solve the problem and worry later. Sometimes the question has always been manipulated by the large  companies when they formed lobby groups such as the Liberty League. This was a lobby group designed to limit government interference in their companies. The league lobbied and gave money to politicians to ensure their voice was heard. The lobby group also funded universities to ensure the results reflected their viewpoint. This is always been the problem with relying on the facts – many times we do not know the facts, just the results. For example, a company workers were getting cancer – was it the chemical they were making; was it the air circulation in the building; was it from the smokestacks? or was it a combination of things? Eventually the company built a new plant and 10% of the costs went into health and safety as opposed to the normal 1%. What happens in the cancer continues?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, often times the public wants large companies to be in charge of new chemicals because in general they feel it is safer. The worse practices should not be done by a large company, when they are – the public feels betrayed because they had given their trust to the large company. This was often the result of the company attempting to keep government out of their company and having the resources to clean up the risk management equation. The first thing they did is send lawyers out to ensure no one sues, rather than ensure people are safe and find a method to fix the problem. Which is better for the stockholders?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.