Small business is the new Race Card.

Government Says 2 Common Materials Pose Risk of Cancer
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: June 10, 2011
Government scientists listed formaldehyde as a carcinogen and said styrene may cause cancer, but the main threat is to workers in manufacturing.

There is a part of this article that shows an attitude I find deeply disturbing. If you read about halfway down, you'll find this:

“It will unfairly scare workers, plant neighbors and could have a chilling effect on the development of new products,” said Tom Dobbins of the American Composites Manufacturers Association. “And our companies are primarily small businesses, and this could hurt jobs and local economies.”

While I feel bad for the businesses that get negatively impacted by these reports, shouldn't our first concern be for the health and safety of the people exposed to these products? Yes, if these products get a negative opinion, or are pulled from the market, the businesses that use them are screwed. That doesn't justify continuing to use them.

To add insult to injury, these same people use the same dirty tactic, “You can't do this because it will hurt small businesses!” to argue against health care legislation. Nice, very nice. Downplay the risks behind the tools of a business's trade, then tell the people exposed that they're S.O.L. when they get sick from doing the job you paid them to do, not to mention the people who buy and use your products.

The “Small Business” card has been played far too often, of late, and not just in areas of health. Anything that changes how businesses are run, or the products they use or make, causes a hue and cry to be plastered across the media. Like a flock of hens pecking the oddball until they either fall in line or die, opponents to these innovations or scientific discoveries use legal maneuvers to try to squash them from ever seeing the light of day. Should they manage to peek their heads out in any way, any beautiful feather, any element that casts them in a favorable light, is slashed and picked until all that's left is an ugly, bleeding mess that looks nothing like what it used to.

Imagine if this tactic had been used and was successful when slavery was being abolished in America. The slave industry could easily argue that abolishing slavery would cause numerous people to lose their jobs, and place an unfair burden upon businesses who relied upon slaves for their workforce. I'm sure there were many people who suffered great hardships when they lost their jobs running slave ships, auctioning off slaves, or running businesses who's profit margins were cut drastically when they no longer had workers to whom they weren't required to pay wages. Ultimately, society and business survived. Adjustments had to be made, some people had to find new careers entirely, but time and ingenuity allowed us to adapt.

I'm sure the same thing can happen now. Taking formaldehyde and styrene off the market won't remove the need or desire for products that currently use them. We'll still have dead bodies, we'll still need homes, and our vanity will still long for ways to alter our appearance. If gas and oil use is restricted, we'll still need cars and other transportation. If tougher regulation is enacted to reduce the pollution caused my power plants, we'll still need electricity. People might lose jobs working on oil rigs, packaging embalming fluid, building gas guzzling cars, or in factories making Styrofoam cups, but new jobs will crop up in their place. People who lost jobs in one sector will find new jobs as the industries that take their place grow. The increased demand for bathtubs and boats that don't use styrene in their construction will drive down costs.

Ultimately, it's not the small businesses that are making the biggest fuss. It's the big businesses who don't want to have to spend their profits on researching alternatives, and finding a way to keep those small businesses that rely on them for their products. Small businesses will bite the bullet and move on. It will be hard, and not all will survive, but small businesses are far more adaptable than the media would like us to believe.

So to all of you big businesses out there, stop hiding behind small businesses as an excuse to save money. Making money does not trump the health and safety of our people and our planet. Your CEO's seven figure salary isn't more important than taking care of your workers and doing what's right. You want a real stimulus for the economy? Stop stuffing all of that money into your bank accounts and ridiculous homes. Stop passing the buck off to the consumer and start spending some of that largesse on ways to keep our people from dying, our country from turning into a wasteland, and our society from stagnating into a swamp of economic despair.