People get sick and die. Corporation denies the problem as long as possible, using its money to outlast desperate families seeking justice. When loss of the court case looks likely, corporation settles for an undisclosed sum in exchange for silence and a waiver of future liability. This script has been repeated over the years in Love Canal, Bhopal, and in the bodies of DES daughters. Corporation names differ, but the outcomes are similar.
Human lives are just the cost of doing business.
The world goes on. Eventually the horror fades, replaced by images of horrors from other places. But what gets lost in the public's consciousness is the ubiquity of the chemical assault in communities across the country. There are hundreds of Woburns in the United States, where communities living next to chemical companies, paper mills, computer manufacturers, military bases, medical waste incinerators, and toxic dumps suffer an array of health problems related to their toxic exposures. When residents seek some kind of justice from these exposures, they are stymied by a compromised regulatory system that regularly protects corporate interests rather than public health.