Bursic
2:00
ETHICS IN ELIMINATING CHEMICAL FUMES: THE GOLF INDUSTRY
Ryan Lincoln (rwl18@pitt.edu)
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
When chemical spills, fumes arouse, or an engine fails,
engineers are responsible. We, as engineers are responsible
for building collapses, cable not working, how much filth is
in the air. We take blame, more than anyone, for technical
failures of every items. Dealing with these problems or issues
in a very ethical way can help improve society, business, and
overall wealth of the community. One of the most important
things is the “protection of safety, health, property, and
welfare of the public and the employee” [4]. In the golf
industry, elements, metals, and plastics are being heated,
melted, processed, and put mixed together to form the core.
Ethical decision making is very difficult. Engineers have to
make many ethical decisions, doing what is in best interest of
the company may not be the best way to handle situations.
Doing what is best for the common person and the customers
is probably more ethical and beneficial in most cases. Big
name golf companies such as Titleist or Nike create the core
of their golf balls with “polybutadiene,” a synthetic rubber
made of melted metals and salts. These mixtures of chemicals
create fumes that can be harmful, possibly even deadly to
humans. The code of ethics can be used in decision making to
help benefit the common workers of the factory.
SCENARIO
In a hypothetical situation, a chemical engineer is working
for a major golf company just after graduating from the
University of Pittsburgh. He has spent all of high school
practicing his skills to help create and develop the latest
technology to jump start his new company making the latest
and greatest golf equipment. One major aspect that this
engineer is trying to achieve is to revolutionize the golf ball,
making it more fun, exciting, and forgiving to hit the ball.
However, he runs into trouble as soon as he starts working. A
few of the best factory workers who rarely get sick aren’t
coming into work and some are in the hospital. As an
engineer, he narrows it down to a few ideas or possibilities on
what it could be. He believes that there could be some flu
going around and they need to improve sanitation, or it could
be the chemical reactions filling up the air with dust and
harmful fumes, the engineer also believes it could be dust
buildup which would hurt the production of the products as
well.
Any of these possibilities would contribute to the poor
sanitation of the working place creating sickness as
vulnerable and easily to get. When the doctors checked the
sick factory workers, they found that it wasn’t Ebola, and it
University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering
2014-10-28
was the chemicals in the factory. Some of the plastics that
were used in creating the chemicals were found in their bodies
and their immune system.
Ethics Involved
The boss has no idea what to do, so he lays it all on the
engineer to figure out the problem and find a way of fixing it
in the safest, most efficient way possible. The engineer is put
to the test just after one full week of work. He has to figure
out a way to eliminate the factory’s chemical fumes and create
a safer, cleaner environment for them to work in. The engineer
found out that the chemicals the golf ball cores are made of
emit harmful chemical fumes. He does some research and
discovers that there is this very similar chemical that isn’t as
hazardous when it burns or is melted. Considering this is the
only way to make the inside of a golf ball, this seems like a
very logical decision and makes sense. However, this new
material is more expensive and isn’t as returning in energy
power, meaning the golf ball will not be as effective or go as
far. This would definitely hurt the company and the
production of the good. Because golf balls will not be as
popular and the quality may be very poor, they will have a
difficult time selling them.
So, that particular golf company and manufacturers may
lose money on this product, meaning they may have to focus
and shift their focus on a money-making, higher demanded
product to make up for the loss on this one. Many forms of
ethics come into play, including: utilitarianism,
consequential, and normative [1]. Normative ethics are the
most common in determining what is right and what is wrong.
Utilitarianism describes the best way to determine what is
right based off of the amount of consequences of each action
or only “pleasurable types of consequences” matter [1].
Consequential ethics are those requiring the counting or
estimating both the good and bad, and determine whether the
total of good consequences outweigh the total bad
consequences, and is morally proper if the good is greater than
the bad. Decision making involves many different types of
ethics and involves weighing the options and consequences.
Hopefully, the engineer chooses the morally right path where
the good consequences outweigh the bad and therefore will be
a good decision.
DECISION MAKING: ETHICS
The rookie engineer has a tough decision to make, as he
also must have evidence to back that up. He has to think over
the decision and all of the consequences, good and bad, that
will come out of his decision before executing it. When the
time came to choose which chemical was the best one to
Ryan Lincoln
construct the golf ball, the engineer chose the more expensive
chemical because he thought it was the morally right choice,
one that would benefit the conditions and the community
instead of the company.
HISTORIC EXAMPLES
Many problems that are frequent today in factories are
often occurrences of chemical spills or leakages. Serious
health issues, or injuries can happen through chemical spills.
Many people, within the last few years especially, have been
seriously ill or have died due to chemical reactions and fumes.
Here are some examples that people live to tell.
The Engineer’s Decision
The engineer chose the more expensive but safer route
when choosing which chemical that the company made the
core of the golf ball. He put the safety of himself and his coworkers before the quality of a product, which is the most
ethical decision. The young engineer made a very ethical
decision because the positive consequences outweigh the bad
consequences [1]. If the engineer did not report the safety
violations and just kept going with the poor, dangerous
chemical, many more people could be sick and the company
would go down in flames or would have a bad reputation [3].
“The obligation of the engineer is to be faithful to the client…
and has the obligation of the engineer to hold paramount the
public health and safety” [6].
So, if the NSPE Board of Ethical Review was evaluating
this engineer, they would say he did the correct thing and
made an ethical decision because it was safe. According to
that review, the employee can make decisions ahead of the
boss in times of crucial action, and “appropriate steps to
protect the occupants of the building form the risks associated
with the [safety] code violations” [6]. The engineer took the
right direction in fixing the problem.
Some of the consequences from this decision of changing
chemicals is the production and the potential wealth of the
company. They will not sell many as golf balls because the
production is lower and the company will probably lose
money. However, the good consequences are the safety and
risk for no injuries of employees increase.
Sandy Knight
One amazing story that I found very interesting and
appalling was an article on this woman named Sandy Knight
[3]. She was a breast cancer survivor and formerly worked in
a factory that made plastics. What is really interesting about
this story is what the doctors thought the tumors were from.
The doctors believed it was from smoking, drinking, and
stress when she got a divorce. She never thought anything of
where she worked. However, the University of Windsor was
doing a study and asked her a lot of questions. They
eventually got back to her and asked her about the plastics that
she had worked with. It turns out, the plastics that were found
in her body also were from the factory.
Apple
Just a few years ago in 2011, Apple began increasing their
labor force in factories around the world. According an article
in the New York Times, over 130 workers were ill due to the
making of the new glass screens for the iPhone. There was a
toxic chemical that was used in the making and the factories
claim to not have approved that toxin. One woman, Wang
Mei, said that she was “hospitalized for ten months because
of n-hexane poisoning” and was going to leave the factory [7].
A major company such as Apple had to have made an ethical
decision, especially to protect its name and brand. Today, they
are leading the country with the new iPhone 6 and cannot
afford a slip in a product. Apparently, Apple did not recognize
this issue and didn’t really even care about it according to the
article. This was another harmful instance in chemical fumes
hurting the human population. One other instance occurred in
2012 through Apple, where iPad factories killed four people
and injured 77 due to explosions. The article says it was due
to chemicals and the excess fumes. “In the last decade, Apple
has become one of the mightiest, richest and most successful
companies in the world, in part by mastering global
manufacturing” [2].
What I Would Do
If I were in this engineer’s position, I would do the same
thing. I would probably make a tally of the consequences,
both good and bad and decide to make the golf balls with a
new type of chemical. I think, that in the long run, it will be
worth the loss of one small product to produce many more
efficient products. It will be better if the company makes
many products that boom to increase the company’s wealth.
Also, I will definitely talk to the company about changing the
target market for the golf balls. Because they would still be
quality golf balls, but not as playable as some others, they
could be marketed to golf course ranges. However, I would
look even further into developing a core that was safe through
chemical reactions and has a high energy return. So, I believe
that the engineer did the right thing and made the most ethical
decision because it was in the good of the company and saved
many people from being sick.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, ethics are the most important thing when
coming to decision making in engineering. By doing what is
right like what the engineer did in the first example is so
important in keeping up a good relationship with the
customers as well as the boss. Even though the product was
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poorly made, compared to the original material, the company
still made money by switching the target market. More
importantly, the factory was made safer and cleaner with the
harmful chemicals out of the air. In that position as a newly
enhanced engineer for a big firm, he made an ethical decision
by weighing the consequences, both good and bad. That was
a good example of a real life situation that was possible of
occuring in a big golf firm like Titleist, Nike, Srixon, or
Callaway and how a good ethical decision is made.
One example of a poor ethical decision is how Apple
handled their high injury toll in China. They put it off like
nothing happened and was just to keep their name from
having a poor reputation. Over 130 people had injuries in the
factory just from the casing of the iPhone and iPad [2, 7]. It
violated the normative and consequential aspects decision
making [1].
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Dr. Bursic for giving me this opportunity
to write today. I would also like to thank all of my fans for
their support on this amazing journey as well as my parents.
They have been the best role models anyone could ever ask
for. Also, I would like to extend my thanks to Jack James and
my whole family for being so supportive through this process.
I love everybody so much and I am so extremely honored to
be here.
REFERENCES
[1]Catalano, G. (2006). Engineering Ethics. In
ENGINEERING ETHICS; PEACE, JUSTICE, AND THE
EARTH (First Edition ed.). United States of America: Morgan
& Claypool
[2]Duhigg, C., & Barboza, D. (2012, January 25). In China,
Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad. Retrieved October 28,
2014.
[3]Exposed to plastic fumes, women working in some
factories have a 400% increased risk of breast cancer, study
says. (2014, January 22). Retrieved October 26, 2014.
[4] Frey, W. (2010, January 19). Resources. Retrieved
October 27, 2014
[5]Hazardous Chemicals, Accidental Stabbings, Raging Fires
& Toxic Fumes That KILLED: Inside The Dangerous
Factories Making Products For TV Chef Paula Deen. (2013,
November 21). Retrieved October 27, 2014.
[6]Public Health and Safety--Delay in Addressing Fire Code
Violations. (n.d.). National Society of Professional
Engineers.
[7]Workers Sickened at Apple Supplier in China. (2011,
February 22). Retrieved October 28, 2014.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES
Ethics Cases. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2014, from
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/murdoughcenter/products/cases.ph
p
Ethics Case Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2014,
from http://www.webguru.neu.edu/professionalism/researchintegrity/ethics-case-studies
Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2014.
http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/Cases.aspx
Stanford Biodesign - Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved October
28, 2014.
http://biodesign.stanford.edu/bdn/resources/ethicscases.jsp
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