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Why are you totally obviating the ridiculously huge scale difference, and therefore impact, of the two mesures in your comparison?

The problem is that it cheated the air quality standards society has set. Our government (regardless of how representative) decided on an amount of acceptable illnesses (regardless on whether you agree with it or not) due to industry in general, and transport in specific, and the company cheated it. The implicit social contract assigns the government the responsibility for deaths due to societal issues like this, once a company violates the law, they have broken that contract hence, they are no longer protected by the government's shouldering of the burden. They killed people.

> So are we going to start banning the passing of gas at the dinner table?

No, we are going to enforce the existing pollution control laws and punish cheaters.