Too often, corporations choose to despoil the natural environment, deny care to the sick, smash workers' unions, retaliate against whistleblowers who seek to call attention egregious corporate abuses, endanger consumers, and more. That's why we've compiled this list of the Ten Worst Corporations of the Year. The biotech company recklessly raced its genetically modified StarLink corn to market. Critics say StarLink corn poses serious allergenic risks including fever, rashes and diarrhea. Smuggler of Death Industry documents uncovered in connection with the U.S. state litigation against the tobacco industry reveal that British American Tobacco for decades promoted and facilitated a worldwide cigarette smuggling scheme, with extensive efforts in Latin America and Asia.
Cigarette smuggling evades excise taxes-lowering cigarette prices and increasing smoking rates.
Lawbreaker The oil giant that likes to portray itself as environmentally responsible paid major fines and entered settlements in 2000 for illegal disposal of hazardous waste, alleged Clean Air Act violations, and underpaying royalties for oil produced on federal and Native American lands. Ford and Firestone placed the lethal combination of Ford Explorers and Firestone tires on the road, leaving the deadly mix on the road even after they had overwhelming evidence of the consumer hazard. A massive explosion at a Phillips Petroleum plastics plant in Pasadena, Texas in March killed one person and injured 74. It was the third fatal accident at the sprawling petrochemical complex in the last 11 years, including a 1989 blast that killed 23 people and an explosion in June 1999 that left two dead. IBP Inc. While wreaking havoc on the farm economy, the big hog companies are also destroying farm country.