Effects of Industrial Operations on Socio-Environmental and Public Health Degradation: Evidence from a Least Developing Country (LDC)

Abstract

Socio-ecological consequences emanating from inadequate compliance of environmental standards by the business firms’ operations in institutionally weak developing countries must be included in the research on organizations and their relationship with the natural environment. Business firms should be held accountable for the socio-ecological degradation generated from their unsustainable business operations. To improve our understanding of the environmental degradation created by polluting manufacturing firms in developing countries, we have adopted an exploratory qualitative research approach. Results of this study indicate that polluting industries’ (e.g., tannery, pulp & paper, fertilizer, textile, and cement) unsustainable practices have enormous impact on human health and the natural environment, resulting in enormous socio-ecological problems that ultimately create huge social costs in countries such as Bangladesh. Corporate environmental responsiveness is largely nonexistent in the polluting industries in Bangladesh.

Applications of Systems Science to Understand and Manage Multiple Influences within Children’s Environmental Health in Least Developed Countries: A Causal Loop Diagram Approach

“…If poverty increases, the number of vehicles reduces. The converse of this is that reducing poverty increases vehicle pollution and increases child and adult respiratory disease [ 88 ]. In this case, the positive health effects of poverty reduction are offset by a negative health effect of unsustainable development.…”

Impact of Industrial Waste on Natural Resources: A Review in the Context of Bangladesh

“…32 Effluents of tannery, pulp, fertilizer industries caused adverse impact on aquatic life where water resources declination were highest among the socio-economic hazards. 90 Cement industries were also responsible for negative effects on aquatic life and water resources. 90 The water quality of the Dhaleshwari River is deteriorating to a significant amount, and a major degradation in environmental quality might occur in a few years, posing a serious hazard to human and aquatic life.…”

“…90 Cement industries were also responsible for negative effects on aquatic life and water resources. 90 The water quality of the Dhaleshwari River is deteriorating to a significant amount, and a major degradation in environmental quality might occur in a few years, posing a serious hazard to human and aquatic life. 91 Proper steps need to be taken to save aquatic ecology.…”

“…92 The tanning, wood, and fertilizer industries' effluents all had an adverse effect on forest resources. 90 The shrimp farming industry may have a detrimental effect on the ecology of mangrove forests, and heavy pollution may alter the biogeochemistry of such areas. 93 Heavy metals have affected the Sundarban mangrove forest and environment, with high concentrations of metalloids (Fe, Zn and Pb) contained in macrobenthos, with Pb concentrations exceeding the WHO's recommended limit.…”

Water Pollution and the Textile Industry in Bangladesh: Flawed Corporate Practices or Restrictive Opportunities?

“…In the case of Bangladesh, the DoE has not been recording inspection results in a consistent manner [12], nor sharing the existing data in a transparent way due to internal bureaucracy and pressure from industrial sectors to avoid interference in their business [13]. Under these circumstances, the empirical studies regarding environmental compliance were often based on a very limited number of interviews between 11-50 [4,12,17,18]. In a unique approach, Haque [13,19] collected news articles published from 2011-2016 about fines levied for water pollution by the DoE and created a dataset with 290 records of fines, of which 255 were from the textile industries.…”