Hb Fuller and the Street Children of Central America

H.B. Fuller Case Study

H.B. Fuller Company, a company based out of Minnesota that prides itself for being a socially responsible business, is a worldwide manufacturer of adhesives, sealants, and paint coatings. Since the early 1980's, H.B. Fuller has been marketing a solvent-based glue, known as Resistol, in Latin America. In 1996, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against H.B. Fuller by the parents of Joel de Jesus, who claimed that the harmful solvent-based glue was the cause of their child's death.

Fuller marketed the glue despite knowledge that the product was being abused by thousands of street children in Latin American countries. The glue contained toluene, a sweet smelling, addictive chemical that is highly toxic. Toluene destroys the thin layers of fat that surround the nerves, causing them to die. It also causes nosebleeds, rashes, severe neurological dysfunction, brain atrophy, loss of liver and kidney functions, loss of sight and hearing, leukemia, and muscle atrophy. Despite adverse affects, H.B. Fuller also marketed lead paints and highly toxic and carcinogenic products, even though they are banned or controlled in the U.S.

Fuller was accused of "knowingly making an extremely addictive product that caused severe physical and neurological damage to thousands of Central American children, not doing enough to prevent the glue from getting to the children, failing to warn of the dangers of inhaling the product and refusing to add deterrents that would keep children from inhaling it" (Peterson). However, Fuller blamed black-market dealers and the "social conditions" in the third world companies for the tragic abuse and claimed that if they removed Resistol from the market, the children would only find another toluene-based product to inhale. Fuller also claims that the shoe businesses in the countries need to remain to help relieve the issue of poverty.