28 mars 2023
After a long legal and administrative battle, breast cancer contracted by a former night shift nurse was recognized as an occupational disease. The decision could set a precedent.
The court’s decision was taken in January, but it was not revealed until the end of March by the newspaper The Parisian : a former nurse at the Sarreguemines hospital (Moselle), whose breast cancer was diagnosed in 2009, finally saw the disease recognized as an occupational disease. The court relied on the report of experts who claim “that there is a direct and essential link between the breast cancer from which she suffered and the work carried out before”.
Night work (873 night shifts performed between 1982 and 2009) and shift work, which therefore directly contributed to causing the disease. A link already highlighted by Inserm in 2012, then in a study conducted in 2018. Its authors had selected five international studies on breast cancer, including 12,000 women, sick or not, and including information on their schedules of work. They had concluded that “among premenopausal women, night work (defined as working at least three hours between midnight and 5 a.m.) increases the risk of breast cancer by 26%”.
Circadian rhythm
For its part, the National Research and Safety Institute for the Prevention of Workplace Accidents and Occupational Diseases (INRS) has also reviewed epidemiological studies and meta-analyses to draw up an inventory on the subject, published in March 2019. . Conclusion : “exposure to shift and/or night work is associated with a statistically significant increase in the risk of breast cancer”.
Among the causes often mentioned to explain this link are disturbances of the circadian rhythm linked to night work: exposed to artificial light at night, the body becomes disrupted and weakened, which opens the way to sleep disorders and mood, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, or “the appearance of other cancers such as those of the prostate”.
To note : For CFDT-Mines, the union that helped the former nurse in her efforts, this court decision must set a precedent and pave the way for the inclusion of breast cancer in the register of occupational diseases.
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Source : Le Parisien, Inserm, INRS – March 2023
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Written by : Charlotte David – Edited by: Vincent Roche