Wysong analyzes the extent of the involvement of seven major health and safety professional organizations in the development of one of the most significant national reform efforts in occupational health policy: The High Risk Occupational Disease Notification and Prevention Act.

Wysong analyzes the nature and extent of the involvement of seven major health and safety professional organizations in the development of the most significant national reform effort in occupational health policy since the OSA Act of 1970: The High Risk Occupational Disease Notification and Prevention Act. The professions have long been a focus of study in sociology; however, this is the first book to examine how the interests and involvement of health professionals' organizations on a national health policy issue are linked to external interests and dynamic contextual factors. By illuminating how professional societies' policy choices are embedded within and shaped by economic and political contexts, Wysong refines prevailing "new class" interpretations of professionals' interests where policy reforms are concerned. This book should be of particular concern to scholars and researchers involved with medical sociology, the sociology of work, complex organizations, social change, and occupational health policy.

Professional Societies and Policy Issues
Organizations, Theory, and Health Policy
Risk Notification
Concept and Policy
The High Risk Legislation - 1985-88
The Focal Actors - Descriptions, Linkages, and Analysis
Case Narratives - Four Who Played
Case Narratives - Three Who Passed
Summary and Conclusions.