Social aspects of high‐risk notification among chromium‐exposed workers

Abstract

This study, based on 169 telephone interviews, explores how a sample of chromium-exposed workers responded to notification of their cohort's elevated risk of lung cancer. It is important to recognize that notified workers do not react as isolated individuals. Their responses are social, actively constructed through interaction with others, unfolding over time within a context of relationships and shared symbols that mediate the risk information. This report illustrates some of the ways that socially-based beliefs and interaction with the social environment can influence worker response, and suggests a more sociologically sophisticated concept of notification to fit the realities of workers' lives.

Communicating Risks after Exposure Has Ended: Former Workers' Perspectives on PCBs

“…In addition, for the workers, the time lapse from exposure to notification evoked some frustration and cynical views of government epidemiologic studies. These findings also support Needleman's notion that worker notification is part of an ongoing process of a community's coping with hazard exposure [17].…”

“…The small literature on worker notification has tended to focus on the packaging of the information [7][8][9][10], logistics of conducting worker notification [1,[11][12][13], and workers' post-notification attitudes and mental health [7,14,15]. Relatively little has been discussed about the context in which worker notification occurs [16,17] and its implications for the communication process.…”

“…These are formed by shared and unique life experiences that workers have had. Needleman [17] proposes the concept of worker notification not as a discrete event but rather as a dynamic, continuous process that is firmly situated in the local community, history, and politics. Houts, McDougall, and Needleman all point out that workers who receive notification are not blank slates and urge that worker notification be considered in specific psychological and social contexts.…”