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OSHA’s Carcinogens Standard: Round One on Risk Assessment Models and Assumptions

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The Social and Cultural Construction of Risk

Part of the book series: Technology, Risk, and Society ((RISKGOSO,volume 3))

Abstract

This chapter uses the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) efforts in the late 1970s to adopt a generic way to regulate suspected workplace carcinogens as a vehicle for examining the role of values in cancer risk assessment. OSHA’s attempt (a final standard was never implemented) to promulgate uniform guidelines for assessing cancer grew out of a frustration with arguing the same rules of evidence for each suspected carcinogen. This case-by-case approach resulted in the adoption of only 19 carcinogen standards, including 14 which had been regulated as a group shortly after the creation of OSHA in 1970.

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© 1987 D. Reidel Publishing Company

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Lynn, F.M. (1987). OSHA’s Carcinogens Standard: Round One on Risk Assessment Models and Assumptions. In: Johnson, B.B., Covello, V.T. (eds) The Social and Cultural Construction of Risk. Technology, Risk, and Society, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3395-8_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3395-8_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8021-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-3395-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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