The Valuation of Contaminated Life: RCA in Taiwan and the Compensation of Toxic Exposure

Abstract

In toxic torts, if the defendants’ negligence is confirmed, the court’s ruling is a punishment translated into monetary amounts, which the plaintiffs are compelled to accept. However, past exposure to toxic substances might continue to cause damage after the judgment, not only among the plaintiffs, but also among their descendants, making an exact measurement of the total damage inflicted almost impossible. A ruling or out-of-court settlement is therefore necessarily a compromise between the obligation to end the dispute and deliver some kind of justice for the victims and the radical uncertainty inherent to toxic torts. In the case of the electronics industry, due to the numerous chemicals to which workers are exposed, the uncertainty of health hazards is particularly high. This article proposes a framework for the valuation of exposure to toxicants, to address both the necessity and the limits of monetary compensation. It is based on a ten-year participating observation of the collective lawsuit launched by more than a thousand former employees of RCA plants in Taiwan, as well as thirty-five in-depth interviews of the plaintiffs following the High Court and Supreme Court decisions.