Meeting

Today, 21^st century global corporations can no longer ignore their impact on the broader social environment.  Corporations have experienced recent internal and external pressure to recognize and mitigate potentially negative business practices.  As a result, many businesses have established voluntary standards and procedures that go beyond regulatory compliance.  This growing movement toward corporate social responsibility has important implications on the field of environmental health.  In an effort to respond to growing stakeholder pressure to protect environmental health, some corporations have begun to develop, implement, and report upon strategies that they hope will ensure healthy populations.  This is a difficult task that proves especially challenging in countries with varying resources, health needs and customs.

The Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine sponsored a workshop to examine and discuss these important environmental health issues. In addition to case studies that highlight specific challenging issues, speakers and participants examined the strengths and weaknesses of our current regulatory system and discussed the potential for public involvement.