A Legal Strategy for Controlling the Export of Hazardous Industries to Developing Countries: The Case of Asbestos

As the United States and other industrialized countries have promulgated standards of safety and health for the workplace since the 1970s, employers have sought methods of minimizing or avoiding the cost of such controls. One method is simply to relocate hazardous production processes in developing nations that do not demand compliance with occupational health standards. This has resulted in the export of occupationally- related diseases to developing countries. The problem warrants the concern of human rights and public health advocates in the United States and other countries from which hazardous industries are exported.