The shareholders willingly take a financial risk in pursuit of wealth. The people in the public harmed by the corporate actions did not willingly accept the risk to their health. The public people harmed were victimized by the corporation & the people involved with the corporation. If the shareholders have skin in the game, they will be more motivated to ensure that the corporation does not endanger the public in any way. The officers' fiduciary duty becomes aligned with public safety as well.
If the shareholders are simply chasing the bottom line without regard to the consequences of the company they invested in, there is no incentive to maintain public safety. History has shown what happens...companies repeatedly harm the public with a relatively minor punishment which is less than the money they made off of harming the public, if the company is punished at all.
Corporations are chartered for the betterment of society. If a corporation is harmful to society, anyone involved with those actions should be aggressively removed from society under criminal statute, with even greater fervor then prosecuting a murderer, rapist, or any other criminal who impacts less people than corporate criminals.