Question

^{Exporting Used Batteries to Mexico
Lead is a highly toxic metal. Elevated levels of lead in the human body have been associated with damage to many organs and tissues, including the heart, bones,however, do not prohibit companies from exporting used batteries to other nations where standards are lower and enforcement is lax.}

^{Ethics in International Business   Chapter 4   141
A study conducted by reporters from The New York Times found that about 20 percent of used vehicle and industrial batteries in the United States were exported to Mexico in 2011, up from 6 percent in 2007. The lead is then extracted from these batteries and resold on commodities markets. It's a booming business. Lead scrap prices
typically a Mexican company. Some large companies are also in this business, although they mostly try to adhere to higher standards. One large U.S. battery company, Exide, has five recycling plants in the United States, but it does no recycling in Mexico. According to an Exide official, it was not in the company's.}

^{stood at $0.42 a pound in January 2012, up frolT1 $0.05 a pound a decade earlier. Recycling in Mexico is also a dirty business. While Mexico does have some regulation for smelting and recycling lead, the laws are weak by American standards, allowing plants to release about 20 times as much as their American equivalents. To make matters worse, enforcement is lax due to a lack of funds. A recent government study in Mexico found that 19 out of 20 recycling plants did not have proper authorization for importing dangerous waste, including lead batteries.
At some plants in Mexico, batteries are dismantled by men wielding hammers and their lead smelted in furnaces whose smokestacks vent into the air. A sample of soil collected from a schoolyard next to one such recycling plant showed a lead level of 2,000 parts per million, five times the limit for children's play areas in the United States, as set by the EPA. The New York Times reporters documented several cases of children living close to this plant and who had elevated levels of lead in their bodies. One 4-monthold had 24.8 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood, almost two and a half times as much as the level typically associated with serious mental retardation.
Much of the exporting of lead batteries to Mexico is done by middle people in the United States who buy up old batteries and then ship them over the border to the cheapest processor,Mexican standards and that its recycling operations in Mexico are well below current U.S. standards for employee blood levels and substantially better than average. 50}

^{Notes
1.   E. Kurtenbach, "The Foreign Factory Factor," Seattle Times, August 31, 2006, pp. Cl, C3; E. Kurtenbach, "Apple Says It's Trying to Resolve Disputc over Labor Conditions at
Chinese iPod Factory," Associated Press Financial Wire, August 30, 2006; and Anonymous, "Chinese iPod Supplier Pù s Suit," Associated Press Financial Wire, September 3, 200 .
2.   S. Greenhouse, "Nike Shoe Plant in Victnam Is Called Unsafc for Workers," The New York Times, November 8, 1997; and V. Dobnik, "Chinese Workers Abused Making Nikes, Rccboks," Seattle Times, September 21, 1997, p. A4.
3.   T. Donaldson, ''Valucs in Tension: Ethics Away from Home, Harvard Business Review, September—October 1996.
4.   R. K. Massie, Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa in the Apartheid Years (New York: Doubleday, 1997).
5.   Not everyone agrees that the divestment trend had much
influence on the South African economy. For a counterview see S. H. Teoh, I. Welch, and C. P. Wazzan, "The Effect of Socially Activist Investment Policies on rhc Financial
interests to skirt regulations. Another large U.S. battery manufacturer, Johnson Controls, does ship a significant number of batteries to Mexico, but it has its own recycling plant there and will open another in 2013. Johnson Controls states that its Mexican facilities abide by the stricter U.S. regulations, rather than Ken Saro Wiwa's Oroniland in Nigeria," The Guardian, November 8, 1995, p. 6.
8.   P. Singer, One World: The Ethics of Globalization (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002).
9.   G. Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Common," Science 162, 1, pp. 243—48.}

^{Case Discussion Questions
1.   Mexico's weaker environmental regulations and lax legal enforcement allow for higher levels of lead pollution than would be permissible in the United States. Is it ethical for U.S. companies to therefore engage in practices that result in higher levels of lead pollution?
2.   As seen in the case, Exide refuses to export used batteries to Mexico. What ethical principles do you think the company follows?
3.   Johnson Controls, on the other hand, chooses to recycle in Mexico but only under the stringent conditions of its own plants. Which of these two companies (Johnson Controls and Exide) is acting in an ethical manner?}

Answer 1

1. It is clearly not ethical for U.S Companies to involve in this dirty business. No matter the regulation of Mexican government is weak on this matter but the hazards created by the US companies is catastrophic. The statistics itself signifies that a sample of soil collected from a schoolyard next to one such recycling plant shows that a lead level of 2000 parts per million which is five times the limit for children play areas as compared to US standards. So it is unethical on U.S part to pursue such business and putting so many life at stake.
2. Some of the ethical principles that Exide stood by are

1. Integrity: Maintaining integrity shows that Exide is morally upright.
2. Law abiding: Though by Mexican standards the laws are not so stringent but Exide decided not to find the loop hole.
3. Reputation: Exide does not want to risk its reputation by knowing the hazardous effect of lead.

3. Clearly Exide is on more morally correct position than Johnson controls. It is known to all that Mexican regulation standards for lead recycling is not strong enough and the loopholes it has are utilized by many other companies. Johnson Controls have announced that Mexican facilities abide by stricter U.S regulations if this is the case how a sample study case revealed that a 4 month old had 24.8 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. The finding are contrary to the statement made by Johnson Controls.