Certified Environmental Audits: A Proposal

Abstract

ra_aG?jUST as Love Canal focused public attention on the T r hazards of toxic waste, the tragedy in Bhopal finally 9 2 ~~drew attention to the public health consequences of chronic mismanagement of environmental hazards. In the wake of this disaster, much thought has been devoted to ways of preventing the recurrence of such industrial accidents. The problem, however, is extremely wide in scope and defies a unique, definitive solution. On the one hand, the environmental safety and health risk factors in any large chemical facility are complicated to evaluate. On the other hand, the international dimension of the problem complicates the situation further by raising issues of national sovereignty, appropriate health and safety standards, and methods of uniform enforcement. The strategy we propose is limited and attempts to circumvent many of the international issues by focusing on the control of the environmental behavior of U.S. multinational chemical companies that have production, storage and/or distribution facilities abroad. We propose the development of an independent and certified environmental auditing system in which compulsory audits would be required of all foreign facilities of any U.S. chemical company that raises domestic funds for any purpose.