Alex Oberlander

Professor Brophy
PHL 2043-02
Assignment #4
Due: 9/24/12
H. B. Fuller and the Street Children of Central America

1. Explain why the children were sniffing this glue, and what affects such sniffing
causes.
Sniffing this type of toluene-based glue gave the street children of Central America a high
that would get them through the day. Imagine if you had nothing to do from the moment
you woke up until you went to sleep. After finding this addiction, kids would resort to
getting glue high every day. Sniffing this type of glue causes “nosebleeds and rashes
while habitual use produces numerous disorders including: severe neurological
dysfunction, brain atrophy, loss of liver and kidney functions, loss of sight and hearing,
leukemia, and muscle atrophy.”

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2. What things did HB Fuller do in response to the injury/death being caused by
children habitually sniffing their product? What else is mentioned in the article that

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might have prevented children sniffing, and why did HB Fuller not pursue this/these
avenues?

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HB Fuller finally realized what was happening and decided to try including mustard seed
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oil to decrease the enjoyment of consuming the product. The test results from this
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addition came back positive with people gagging and tearing up upon inhalation. Once
this was found to work the legislature of Honduras passed a decree banning the importing
or manufacturing of solvent-based adhesives that didn’t contain mustard-seed oil. Once
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this was found as a fail though addictive groups were formed to decrease the amount of
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glue consumers.
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3. Clearly, HB Fuller did in fact respond to some extent to the glue problem.
Imagine, though, that HB Fuller had decided to do nothing to prevent this misuse of
their product: do you think it would be morally ok for HB Fuller do have done
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absolutely nothing to help prevent the damage caused by the sniffing of Resistol?
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Briefly explain.
If HB Fuller had done nothing to help I feel like this problem would have carried over to
other countries like the United States. Children are not aware of the long-term effects this
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glue has when inhaled. It would have been morally flawed if HB Fuller had stepped back
and done nothing. Keep in mind though that if they had done nothing to help, they would
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have seen a rise in profits from addicts loosing control. I respect this company because
legally they had no moral obligation to help, but because they saw how it was effecting
children they decided to help.
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4. Consider the fact that the children’s parents and, perhaps, the Honduran
government bear some significant responsibility for the injury/death of the children
in this case. Does the fact that these two parties can squarely be blamed mean that
HB Fuller has no moral obligation to help? Explain.

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 HB Fuller has a strong obligation seeing that they were the ones producing the products. I
do feel that the government could have stepped in more to help because some of these
kids don’t even have parents to watch over them. They should have made security
additions at places where these products were sold to avoid the cause of death. Of course
that can only do so much but it would have decreased at least some of the amount of
addicts. HB Fuller was at fault the most however because when it comes down to it, they
were the ones making the glue, they have every obligation.
5. If you were on the HB Fuller board, what – if anything – would you have done
differently, and why?
It is a very tough situation to be put in when you have to run a company that is being
brought down for such a reason. I would have tried to do a better job of containing the
products. Glue is a common everyday tool that is tough to control because no one besides
the addicts would think of inhaling it. I feel that the company overall did the right thing
by trying their best to take control of the abuse but feel they could have done more.

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