Avoiding Pollution Penalties: Risk Management is the Key

It is noted that new British and European legislation will make it a criminal offence for companies not to dispose of their waste products properly. Organisations, following the American example, will have to monitor the costs of waste disposal just as closely as they audit those of their products. Insurance companies are likely to be more specific in their underwriting of pollution disasters in the light of the swingeing payments doled out in the past. They will now demand the highest level of physical risk management,prevention rather than cure, involving total management commitment, the existence of which could have obviated the demise of companies in the past. Penalties for corporate pollution of the environment will be most severe and negligent directors will be singled out for punishment.