Khaberni - The Administrative Court of Marseille has opened a new door to recognizing cancer as an occupational disease associated with night work.
This came after the court issued a ruling stipulating that the breast cancer, which a nurse contracted after more than 25 years of night work, can be directly attributed to her working conditions.
This ruling is an important step in the field of compensation for occupational diseases for women working night shifts, as such recognition is rarely officially granted, according to the French “France.Info” station.
On Thursday, the court decided that continuous night work for two and a half decades directly contributed to the nurse's breast cancer.
Based on that, the court annulled a decision by the director of the Martigues hospital, in the French region of "Bouches-du-Rhône," who had rejected the nurse's request in 2021 to recognize the disease as service-related, after a similar rejection of her request in 2019.
The court stated that "a disease contracted by an employee is related to public service if there is a direct connection between the disease and the working conditions, allowing for an explanation of its development, unless there are other specific causes."
The court added that scientific studies since 2007 have shown that night work affects women's hormonal functions, thereby increasing the risk of cancer.
The nurse, diagnosed with cancer in 2014, worked at the hospital for about 25 years on night shifts only, averaging 140 night shifts per year. The court noted that other risk factors such as genetics, hormones, environmental and dietary factors were very weak or absent in the nurse.
Based on these circumstances, the court saw a "sufficiently high likelihood of a direct link between the disease and the conditions of night work," and ordered the hospital to recognize the disease as service-related.
The nurse’s lawyer, Elizabeth Leroi, explained that the ruling allows her client to benefit from a lifelong pension calculated based on the percentage of permanent or partial disability that will be determined. The lawyer considered this decision "very important," especially since many women working at night develop the disease at a relatively young age.
Breast cancer is the deadliest type of cancer among women in France, with about 12,000 deaths annually.
Night work has been classified as "possibly carcinogenic" since 2007 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, while X-rays and gamma rays have been classified as "proven carcinogens."
Studies have shown that working more than two nights a week for over ten years triples the risk of cancer, according to a report issued by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in 2018.
So far, few women have received official recognition that breast cancer is an occupational disease, which allows them to obtain financial compensation. The first recognized case in 2023 was for a nurse in Moselle who was exposed to radiation and worked night shifts for 28 years.
Lawyer Elizabeth Leroi points out that obtaining recognition of cancer as an occupational disease remains difficult, despite scientific evidence.
Several lawsuits have previously been filed, both amicably and judicially, for nurses and medical assistants who have been exposed to multiple factors such as night work and ionizing radiation, and efforts are ongoing to recognize prostate cancer in men working night shifts as an occupational disease, due to its hormone-relatedness.
