Health authorities have confirmed the link between exposure to asbestos and certain cancers of the larynx and ovaries. Known for years, it was less documented than for cancers of the lung or the pleura. At the end of September, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) issued an opinion
which concludes that the causal link between exposure to asbestos and the occurrence of cancers of the larynx and ovaries is now proven.
The circle of asbestos-related occupational diseases widens
This is an important step for victims of asbestos since these conclusions open the way to better compensation for patients, by promoting their recognition as an occupational disease.
These conclusions must now be translated into action.
The Mutuelles de France invite the public authorities to quickly implement ANSES’s recommendations:
- The Mutuelles de France would like these two types of cancer to be included in the table of occupational diseases, as is already the case for those of the bronchopulmonary tract. This is an essential condition to facilitate the recognition of occupational disease for patients and thus facilitate their compensation procedures.
The Mutuelles de France also want better information for doctors and better support for workers who have been exposed to asbestos and who have cancer of the larynx or ovaries.
For decades, thousands of employees have been exposed to asbestos in silence and lies. However, banned since 1997, asbestos claimed more than 100,000 victims from 1959 to 2009.
According to the Haut Conseil de la Santé Publique, it might claim 100,000 additional victims by 2050, mainly due to lung cancer, mesothelioma (a pathology characteristic of asbestos), not to mention cancers such as those of the larynx. or ovaries.
The Federation of mutual insurance companies in France, which has been involved for several decades on this subject, therefore calls on the public authorities to continue working towards greater recognition of occupational diseases and for enhanced support for victims.
From this point of view, the strengthening of occupational medicine, in its means, its prerogatives and its capacity for prevention are levers which, contrary to the latest reforms, should be a priority.
for more details on the ANSES opinion
: https://www.anses.fr/fr/amiante-cancers-ovaires-larynx#:~:text=Au%20vu%20des%20nombreuses%20%C3%A9tudes,professionnelles%20pour%20ces%20deux%20cancers.
