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

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.