Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Re: LMOC: Blue Murder / Blue Sky Mining

Miron Mizrahi mironmizrahi at yahoo.com
Mon Jun 7 20:03:17 MDT 2004


Kate,

I must say I disagree with you here.

to begin with, what the Nazis did (as per Nuremberg) was without the
consent of the subjects. this is diff to asking people to join a
study and compensating them for it. not that I am advocating using
humans in such studies but on the other hand I am not in principle
opposed to it either. particularly considering how we use/used
animals in the cosmetics industry.

secondly I doubt there are many substances left where we do not know
or suspect. possibly in hi-tech industries (recent IBM labs case)
but as far as primary industries go - is there anything we don't
already suspect an issue may exist?

and thirdly, the issue IMO is not consent but greed. even if there
were no moral or legal issues there is no reason why any business
would upfront conduct a study. businesses do not, as a rule, spend
time or money on anything that does not contribute directly to
either revenue generation or cost reduction unless they have no
choice. if we judge by the most heavily penalized industry (tobacco)
I doubt that even if they could turn back the clock that they would
have done it any differently. over time they still made far more
than what they lost through litigation. 

unions would have helped here but unfortunately unions have long ago
stopped caring about the workers and would rather focus on their
executives (much like the businesses they once fought against). the
only way I can see this situation improving is through legislation
and education. and let's face it - with the current governments in
both US and Oz there is little likelihood of improvement any time
soon.



=====
Miron

   How could people get so unkind?


	
		
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