The self-regulation record is clear. 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. Here s our annual 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.
Cigarette smuggling evades excise taxes lowering cigarette prices and increasing smoking rates.
Lawbreaker The oil giant, which 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. DoubleClick is rubbing up against the edge of Internet privacy protections, having acquired the ability to match consumer information from web usage and purchases mostly gained without consumer knowledge or informed consent with consumers names and addresses. 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. The Los Angeles Times reported in November that on behalf of military contractor Lockheed Martin, Loma Linda University is conducting the first large-scale tests of a toxic drinking water contaminant a rocket fuel component on human subjects. A massive explosion at a Phillips Petroleum plastics plant in Pasadena, Texas in March killed one person and injured 74.