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posted by cmn32480 on Friday August 28 2015, @04:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the somebody-should-invent-a-cleaner-world dept.

Ever more the light seems to be shining in dark spots, and the cockroaches scatter. The Huffington Post reveals today that DuPont has knowingly been poisoning a small farm and community for decades, desperately trying to dump and hide the environmental, social, and medical fallout of their chemical C8. Despite their efforts, the scandal behind C8 cannot be so easily pushed down inside a landfill and forgotten like a painfully produced Atari video game. From the TFA:

That May, a group of DuPont executives gathered at the company's Wilmington headquarters to discuss the C8 issue. According to the minutes, attendees discussed recently adopted plans to cut C8 emissions at Washington Works, such as adding scrubbers to vents that spewed the chemical into the air. But they decided to scrap these initiatives. The additional expense was not "justified," the executives concluded, since it wouldn't substantially reduce the company's liability. "Liability was further defined as the incremental liability from this point on if we do nothing as we are already liable for the past 32 years of operation," the minutes read. "From a broader corporate viewpoint the costs are small."

One might think we would have learned our lessons from poisoning the world with lead, but clearly these executives never got the memo. Quite strange, given they're from the same company. I'm almost speechless at the scope of the harm and damage, knowingly and premeditatively, performed against all of humanity worldwide. The Chinese government announced today the arrests, and more than likely inevitable executions, of a score of executives and officials responsible for the Tianjin port explosions.

At what point does the harm that executives, in companies such as DuPont, meet thresholds high enough to discuss special prosecutions and the death penalty? When even China, who lacks a strong history of supporting human rights and consumer protections, recognizes that some executives and officials need to be "criminally detained" and ultimately dealt with, when can we in the so-called civilized Western societies perform the same? We've yet to even slow DuPont down.

[More after the Break]

DSM-IV Definition. Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the local culture. There is a marked inability to get along with others or abide by societal rules. Individuals with this disorder are sometimes called psychopaths or sociopaths.

From the quote in the article (emphasis mine), can any reasonable person conclude that these executives do not need to be handed life sentences in prison at a minimum? It's not hyperbole to say that I could walk into a church, make racists statements, kill a half a dozen people, and receive a much harsher sentence than a group of executives that knowingly caused birth defects, miscarriages, cancers, among a myriad of other serious health conditions, up to and including grisly and pointless deaths. More maddeningly, to be commensurate, I would need to have children and begin a multi-generational attack on my fellow citizens to come close to what DuPont executives have done against a single community, much less the world.

It may be time to seriously, and a civilized manner, begin discussing how to bring these executives up on criminal charges, and even executing them. Especially helpful to remember in these discussions, that it is now TWICE that DuPont has knowingly poisoned the world and harmed MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS of our fellow human beings . Forget about our reputation in the world now; We're the country that has deliberately been destroying the world for profit, and all of the documents and science exist to prove it.

So.... do we need a third time from the same company before we can start talking about preventative measures and justice?


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  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Friday August 28 2015, @09:45PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Friday August 28 2015, @09:45PM (#229202)

    I'm sorry

    no, you aren't, so don't say that you are because it just cheapens the words.

    It's not a free choice, but it's still less bad than being poisoned for profit in secret.

    really? so who is telling everyone? do they teach in school that sugar is a drug similar to cocaine? do they explain what if you are getting fat that the cause the sugar in your foods? do they explain that the average lifespan is dropping because sugar is in your foods? do they tell them that despite all this information, it's being served in the cafeteria? i would like to point out that to eat sugar excessively, you need only to eat regular foods. you can think you are eating healthy and very easily go waaay over the daily amount of sugar. you can think, "oh a granola bar [brucebradley.com] is a healthy snack" and it has several days worth of sugar in a single serving! or maybe wake up and have some Low Fat Whole Grain Granola Cereal [sunbeltbakery.com] which has 3 to 5 days worth of sugar!

    when "healthy food" is killing people, it's a sign that people don't know a vital piece of information.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @12:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @12:59AM (#229270)

    Whoever thinks granola bars are a healthy snack..... never read the ingredients list/never thought about what goes in and how it's made.