Until now, very few women have obtained recognition as an occupational disease for their breast cancer, which entitles them to compensation.
The administrative court of Marseille recognized on Thursday the existence of a «lien direct» between a nurse’s breast cancer and her night work conditions for nearly 25 years, believing that her illness was attributable to her service. Consequently, the court annulled the decision of the director of the Martigues hospital center who had rejected the request for “recognition of accountability” of the nurse, who had also had her request for recognition of occupational disease refused in 2019.
In its decision, the court recalls that“an illness contracted by a civil servant is attributable to the public hospital service if it presents a direct link with his working conditions, allowing its development unless particular circumstances are at the origin”. However, underlines the court, “while most causes of the disease remain unknown scientific studies since 2007 reveal the effects of night work on women’s hormonal functions, leading to an increased risk of cancer..
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The nurse, diagnosed with cancer in 2014, worked at Martigues hospital for nearly 25 years “exclusively at night, with an average of 140 nights per year”underlines the court which notes that “other known risk factors such as genetic, hormonal and environmental and health-dietary factors are, in this nurse, weak, or even absent”. He judges that, in these conditions, “there is a sufficiently high probability of a direct link between the pathology suffered by the nurse and her night working conditions which caused the development of this illness”. Il “therefore orders the hospital center to recognize the attributability of the illness to the service”.
“Hard to get this recognition”
“It’s a very good decision”reacted Me Elisabeth Leroux, the lawyer of the nurse who will be able, thanks to this decision, to benefit from“a lifetime pension calculated according to the rate of permanent or partial incapacity which will be granted to him”. “It’s very important because they often get sick young”she clarified. The deadliest cancer in women in France with 12,000 deaths per year, breast cancer is a disease whose risk factors have not yet been explored: night work has been judged “probably carcinogenic” in 2007 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a WHO agency which also classified “proven carcinogens” X-rays and Gamma.
Working at night more than two nights a week for more than 10 years multiplies the risk by three, estimated the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in 2018. So far, very few women have obtained recognition as an occupational disease for their breast cancer, which gives them the right to compensation. The first, in 2023, was a Moselle nurse exposed to radiation and working night shifts at the hospital for 28 years.
“We still have a lot of difficulty obtaining this recognition despite consistent scientific literature”deplores Me Leroux. If several procedures have already been won – amicably or in court – for nurses and caregivers, most often combining multiple exposure (night work and ionizing rays), procedures are underway to have prostate cancer – also a hormone-dependent cancer – recognized as an occupational disease in night workers, specifies the lawyer.
