Risky Business: Genetic Testing and Exclusionary Practices in the Hazardous Workplace

by Elaine Draper

Overview

At a time when more corporate employers are using genetic information as a cornerstone of their hiring practices, when workers find their chromosomes considered alongside their resumes, the ramifications of genetic testing demand further examination. Risky Business analyzes health screening in the workplace - three major types of testing are examined: genetic screening in which job applicants and employees are tested for inherited traits that may predispose them to the disease:genetic monitoring that aims to detect genetic damage among current employees that could indicate exposure to dangerous chemicals; and teratogenic risk in which laboratory cultures and animals are used to provide evidence of the effects of chemical exposure on humans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521422482
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/30/1991
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Public Policy
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword Nicholas A. Ashford; Preface; Introduction; 1. Genetic testing and exclusionary practices in the workplace: risk, power, and controversy; 2. the rise of the genetic paradigm for occupational risk; 3. Competing conceptions of safety: high-risk workers or high-risk work?; 4. Sex, race, and genetic predisposition; 5. Power and control in industrial medicine; 6. Who bears the burden? The legal and economic context of occupational disease; 7. The social construction of workplace hazards: Conclusions and policy implications; Appendix; Notes; Glossary; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

‘After reading this book, one is left in awe at the thought that, given the many sources of risk involving every aspect of the interaction (from matching to production to transportation), people in the Renaissance were able to overcome these risks and produce as many masterpieces as they did. This is the monograph’s key achievement: To convince readers that that of Renaissance art was no easy business.’ Ennio E. Piano, Journal of Cultural Economics

From the Publisher