Shifting Toxic Products to Third World Countries

In a memo, which criticized a draft of the bank's World Development Report, Summers was applying cost-benefit analysis, which measures the value of a human life by the stream of wages remaining to it. In an example Summers gave, suppose it may cost Global Megatoxics $1 million to install of a state-of-the-art scrubber in its chimney. If Global determines that not spending this sum will shorten the lives of five people by 10 years apiece, all that would be lost would be the present value of these 50 years of wages. At a wage of $1,000 a year, the cost of the five lives can be figured at $41,000--with compounded interest. At $30,000 a year, they're worth $1.2 million. As Summers stated in his memo, "health-impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages."

Since the costs of pollution--always priced in dollars or their equivalent--rise with development, Summe

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ics say that while these potent pest killers increase crop yields, they also cause deaths and illness in developing countries and contaminate the environment. In a toxic twist, some of the chemicals return to the United States on imported meats and produce, completing what environmentalists have dubbed the "circle of poison." Congress, in 1990, voted to ban the exports, but last minute lobbying by the White House--under the Bush Administration--prompted by the National Agricultural Chemicals Association--defeated the measure in a House-Senate conference committee. The bills were reintroduced in April, 1991, and Senate Hearings were held. Jay Vroom, NACA's president, argued that sovereign nations should be free to purchase any pesticide and that dictating U.S. safety standards to other countries "smacks of environmental imperialism." Sandra Marquardt, who tracks the issue for Greenpeace, said that developing nations that buy most of these products rarely have the expertise to safely handle such toxic substances. Protective gear for farm workers is usually unavailable and often poorly designed for tropical climates. Many farm workers are illiterate and cannot read warning labels. The World Health Organization estimates tha
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2176
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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