title: Inventing the Right to Know: Herbert Abrams's Efforts to Democratize Access to Workplace Health Hazard Information in the 1950s.
abstract: In the 1980s, the right-to-know movement won American workers unprecedented access to information about the health hazards they faced on the job. The precursors and origins of these initiatives to extend workplace democracy remain quite obscure. This study brings to light the efforts of one of the early proponents of wider dissemination of information related to hazard recognition and control. Through his work as a state public health official and as an advisor to organized labor in the 1950s, Herbert Abrams was a pioneer in advocating not only broader sharing of knowledge but also more expansive rights of workers and their organizations to act on that knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Alan Derickson is with the School of Labor and Employment Relations, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Derickson
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information / Q000266:history*; D002961:Civil Rights / Q000266:history; D003709:Democracy; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007750:Labor Unions / Q000266:history; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000266:history*; D011634:Public Health / Q000266:history; D014481:United States; D017132:Workplace / Q000266:history*
chemical_list: D015386:Hazardous Substances