Corporate Responsibility: The Stakeholder Paradox Reconsidered

Is it legitimate for a business to concentrate on profits under respect for the law and ethical custom? On the one hand, there seems to be good reasons for claiming that a corporation has a duty to act for the benefit of all its stakeholders. On the other hand, this seems to dissolve the notion of a private business; but then again, a private business would appear to be exempted from ethical responsibility. This is what Kenneth Goodpaster has called the stakeholder paradox: either we have ethics without business or we have business without ethics. Through a different route, I reach the same solution to this paradox as Goodpaster, namely that a corporation is the instrument of the shareholders only, but that shareholders still have an obligation to act ethically responsibly. To this, I add discussion of Friedman’s claim that this responsibility consists in increasing profits. I show that most of his arguments fail. Only pragmatic considerations allow to a certain extent that some of the ethical responsibility is left over to democratic regulation.     

The Moral Foundation of the Precautionary Principle

The Commission's recentinterpretation of the Precautionary Principleis used as starting point for an analysis ofthe moral foundation of this principle. ThePrecautionary Principle is shown to have theethical status of an amendment to a liberalprinciple to the effect that a state only mayrestrict a person's actions in order to preventunacceptable harm to others. The amendmentallows for restrictions being justified even incases where there is no conclusive scientificevidence for the risk of harmful effects.However, the liberal tradition has seriousproblems in determining when a risk of harm isunacceptable. Nevertheless, reasonable liberalarguments in favor of precaution can be basedon considerations of irreversible harm andgeneral fear of harm. But it is unclear whenthere considerations can be overridden.Within the liberal framework, the Commissionadvocates a so-called proportional version ofthe Precautionary Principle. This should beclearly distinguished from a welfare-basedapproach to precaution based on risk-aversiveweighing up of expected costs and benefits.However, in the last resort, the Commissiondoes seem to make a covert appeal to suchconsiderations.     

Food effects on statolith composition of the common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis)

The concentration of trace elements within cephalopod statoliths can provide a record of the environmental characteristics at the time of calcification. To reconstruct accurately the environmental characteristics at the time of calcification, it is important to understand the influence of as many factors as possible. To test the hypothesis that the elemental composition of cuttlefish statoliths could be influenced by diet, juvenile Sepia officinalis were fed either shrimp Crangon sp. or fish Clupea harengus under equal temperature and salinity regimes in laboratory experiments. Element concentrations in different regions of the statoliths (core–lateral dome–rostrum) were determined using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA- ICPMS). The ratios of Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, Mn/Ca and Y/Ca in the statolith’s lateral dome of shrimp-fed cuttlefish were significantly higher than in the statolith’s lateral dome of fish-fed cuttlefish. Moreover, significant differences between statolith regions were found for all analysed elements. The fact that diet adds a considerable variation especially to Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca must be taken into account in future micro-chemical statolith studies targeting cephalopod’s life history.     

Differences in reproductive success between laboratory and wild-derived golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) as a consequence of inbreeding

All laboratory golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) originated from a sibling pairing back in 1930. Due to this extreme founder event, domestic golden hamsters are presumed to be one of the most bottlenecked animal populations. Nevertheless, domestic hamsters show no obvious signs of inbreeding depression in commonly used breeding stocks. To explore the existence of potentially masked inbreeding effects, we compared the reproductive success of laboratory (lab) and wild-derived (wild) golden hamsters. We allowed oestrus females to mate consecutively with lab and wild males. The resulting offspring was genotyped using microsatellites to assess paternity. Finally, we compared male reproductive success to genetic variability, sexual behaviour and different sperm characteristics. Both hamster strains exhibited the expected large difference in genetic diversity (H _wild =0.712±0.062 vs H _lab =0.007±0.007. The reproductive success of wild males dramatically exceeded that of lab males (87% of pups were sired by wild males). Sexual behaviour of wild and lab males only varied in the number of long intromissions (intromissions without ejaculation at the end of the mating). No significant differences were observed in relation to mounting, ejaculation and intromission. There were also no apparent differences in sperm motility, velocity and density or testis histology between wild and lab hamsters. We conclude that the reduced reproductive success of lab males represents a hidden inbreeding effect, although its precise physiological cause remains unclear. These results provide first evidence for a major fitness disadvantage in captive golden hamsters.     

Toxicity of a complex mixture of atmospherically transported pesticides to Ceriodaphnia dubia

The presence of several anthropogenic chemicals has been documented in the atmosphere of the Canadian prairies. The deposition of these chemicals as a mixture is of importancesince little is known of the combined effects of these chemicalson aquatic organisms. This study was designed to evaluate theacute and chronic toxicity of a complex mixture of nineatmospherically transported pesticides to Ceriodaphniadubia. The nine selected pesticides (bromoxynil, dicamba, 2,4-D,MCPA, triallate, trifluralin, pentachlorophenol, lindane, and4,4-DDT) were detected in appreciable quantities in dryatmospheric deposits. The concentration of each pesticide in themixture was based on maximum measured daily dry deposition ratesfor central Canada, except for pentachlorophenol, which wasestimated based on atmospheric concentrations. The 48-h LC50estimate for C. dubia exposed to the pesticide mixture was174.60 g L^-1 (340 times the measured total dry deposition concentration). The estimated NOEC and LOEC for bothsurvival and reproduction, as determined in the 7-d chronic toxicity test, were 51.3 (100 times) and 154 g L^-1 (300 times), respectively. A basic risk assessment, using the toxic unit approach, suggested that the toxicity of the pesticide mixture was mainly due to 4,4-DDT. Overall, this atmospherically transported complex mixture of pesticides appearsto pose a negligible toxicological risk to non-target aquatic invertebrates such as zooplankton.     

Organic carbon oxidation induced by large-scale shallow water intrusion into a vertical fracture zone at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory (Sweden)

Entrance tunnel construction at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory opened a conductive vertical fracture zone at a depth of 70 m on March 13, 1991. Three weeks later a sharp dilution front corresponding to 80% shallow water inflow to the originally saline fracture zone arrived at the entrance tunnel depth. In spite of this large inflow of shallow water, the fracture zone has remained persistently anoxic over a subsequent period. Results from gas sampling and ¹⁴C dating of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon conclusively show that recent organic carbon is being transported into the fracture zone and oxidized to carbon dioxide. These results are important when considering possible changes of redox status in the deep groundwater environment during construction and operation of a repository for spent nuclear fuel. Opening this fracture zone to large-scale surface water inflow adds reducing capacity in the form of organic carbon. This implies that the soil cover may provide important protection against input of dissolved oxygen to fractures being drained during the open phase of the repository.     

An automatic sampler for measurement of dust-deposition rates around fugitive sources

A wind-directional sampler for determination of dust-deposition rates has been developed, enabling the measurement of dust-deposition caused by a specific source and, at the same time, providing information on the dust-deposition rate for the background area. The sampler is called METDUST. This paper describes the results of a field evaluation of the METDUST sampler. The field evaluation was performed in a village in Southern Jutland, Denmark, where complaints of dust-deposition had occurred close to a power plant with large stockpiles of coal. The results showed that, out of a 9-month period, increased dust-deposition occurred downwind from the stockpiles during 4 months. Episodes were identified by comparison with the background deposition rate. The METDUST sampler offers an opportunity to measure the dust-deposition rate contributed by the source and the background simultaneously. It can, therefore, be used by environmental authorities to identify the "likelihood of complaint" and to define a suitable guideline for the case in question.     

“Conflict over Risks in Food Production: A Challenge for Democracy”

When it comes to conflict over risk management priorities in food production, a number of observers, including myself, have called for some sort of public deliberation as a means of resolving the moral disagreements underlying such conflicts. This paper asks how, precisely, such deliberation might be facilitated. It is shown that representative democracy and the liberal regulation that most Western democracies adhere to place important constraints on public deliberation. The challenge is to find forums for public deliberation that can operate within these constraints while still making a constructive contribution.     

Schnelle vor-ort-analytik zur untersuchung von rüstungsaltlasten

Field screening methods for the analysis of explosives (for which commercial test kits are generally available) are reviewed. These techniques include immunoassays, photometric methods, bio and chemical sensors as well as thin layer chromatography. Basic aspects of these techniques are discussed, their validation is presented and their application to water and soil samples from hazardous ammunition waste is described. An evaluation of field studies with commercial test kits demonstrates that these techniques can be applied successfully for both the exploration of suspected contaminated sites and their sanitation. These methods are used on-site. In general, they allow short analysis times and a high sample throughput, thus leading to a significant reduction of the number of samples to be analysed in the laboratory and the costs.