DDT and ethics
Introduction
Paul Muller, a Swiss chemist and Nobel Prize winner was the one who discovered the DDT which was found to be very effective as a pesticide. In the 40s it was used in the agriculture sector to help kill crop-eating insects. From 1942 onwards it started being commercialized with big companies such as the Montrose Chemical Corporation at the frontline of this pioneering product. At first, the product proved to be quite a sensation drastically reducing the amount of malaria resulting in saving many lives. It also had a huge impact in agriculture with its effective control on pests. Later on there were reports of DDT being harmful to the environment, people and animals. In fact, there was a book that was published by Rachel Carson entitled “Silent Spring” that outlined the dangers of the DDT. A year after the book was published, President John F Kennedy ordered a committee to investigate the book’s veracity and it was found to be accurate and that persistent toxic pesticides should be phased out as soon as possible. What followed was DDT being banned from the public by government decree after conclusive research of how dangerous it is to the environment. The product was however still sold to other countries outside of the US for some time before some of the countries themselves decided to ban it. The purpose of this report is to explore ethical issues and philosophies brought forth by some of the world’s ethicists and philosophers in an effort to advocate for the ban of DDT.
Violation of Ethical Standards in manufacturing and selling DDT
Any manufacturing business should have a code of ethics that should me more than just a set of rules set for its employees. It should go beyond the organization and be a set of rules that protects all its stakeholders and most importantly they must be enforceable. The Montrose Chemical Corporation did violate some of the ethical standards in the manufacturing and selling of DDT to the public as the case may suggest.
Paul Muller, a Swiss chemist and Nobel Prize winner was the one who discovered the DDT which was found to be very effective as a pesticide. In the 40s it was used in the agriculture sector to help kill crop-eating insects. From 1942 onwards it started being commercialized with big companies such as the Montrose Chemical Corporation at the frontline of this pioneering product. At first, the product proved to be quite a sensation drastically reducing the amount of malaria resulting in saving many lives. It also had a huge impact in agriculture with its effective control on pests. Later on there were reports of DDT being harmful to the environment, people and animals. In fact, there was a book that was published by Rachel Carson entitled “Silent Spring” that outlined the dangers of the DDT. A year after the book was published, President John F Kennedy ordered a committee to investigate the book’s veracity and it was found to be accurate and that persistent toxic pesticides should be phased out as soon as possible. What followed was DDT being banned from the public by government decree after conclusive research of how dangerous it is to the environment. The product was however still sold to other countries outside of the US for some time before some of the countries themselves decided to ban it. The purpose of this report is to explore ethical issues and philosophies brought forth by some of the world’s ethicists and philosophers in an effort to advocate for the ban of DDT.
Violation of Ethical Standards in manufacturing and selling DDT
Any manufacturing business should have a code of ethics that should me more than just a set of rules set for its employees. It should go beyond the organization and be a set of rules that protects all its stakeholders and most importantly they must be enforceable. The Montrose Chemical Corporation did violate some of the ethical standards in the manufacturing and selling of DDT to the public as the case may suggest.