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Johnson Controls : A Voluntary Fetal Protection Policy

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Johnson Controls is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of batteries. “Manufacturers’ of batteries have known for some time that their manufacturing process, which involves considerable exposure to lead, can cause harm to a fetus” (DeGeorge 61). It is for this reason that Johnson Controls, as well as other manufacturers of lead based products, “hired no women in battery-productions facilities before the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act” (Cornell 72). Johnson Controls production jobs paid very well and were desired by both men and women. After Johnson Controls began hiring women for these production positions they implemented a voluntary fetal protection policy in 1977. This policy warned of the dangerous effects lead could have on an unborn child. Johnson Controls also openly encouraged all of its female employees not yet in menopause to choose jobs within the company that were not in the production facility. However, “after eight of its employees became pregnant and registered blood levels higher than those considered safe by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for a worker planning to have children” (DeGeorge 61) Johnson Controls was faced with an ethical business decision in regards to its fetal protection policy. Because of the reproductive toxicity of lead exposure, Johnson Controls implemented a mandatory fetal protection policy. The policy applied to all women of childbearing age. This policy gave female employees the option to

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