Around forty diseases, cancers, cardiovascular diseases or even psychological diseases "having a proven or probable link with professional exposure" must be studied with a view to their possible inclusion in the pathologies compensable as occupational diseases, estimates Anses.
In an opinion published on Thursday, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) recommends updating the tables of occupational diseases which list the administrative conditions allowing for automatic recognition.
In its expertise, Anses "identified around forty diseases having a proven or probable link with professional exposure not covered by a table of occupational diseases".
These include "cancers affecting different organs as well as non-cancerous diseases, such as cardiovascular disorders, mental and cognitive illnesses and respiratory pathologies such as asthma."
Thus, ANSES lists "proven" links, but not taken into account in the tables, between lung cancer and exposure to diesel engine exhaust gases or welding fumes, between leukaemia and exposure to formaldehyde, or between breast, kidney, colon and oesophageal cancer, and exposure to X-rays and gamma rays.
"Probable" links, not currently taken into account, exist between breast and prostate cancers and night shift work, bladder cancer and exposure linked to work in hair salons and dry cleaning, laryngeal cancer and work on bitumen or roofing, in particular.
These occupational diseases are under-recognised because some of these tables are now obsolete, as noted by a commission responsible for assessing the cost of this under-reporting of accidents at work and occupational diseases.
If included in the tables, the employee does not have to provide proof of the link between his illness and his professional activity because this link is presumed.
Anses recommends "including this census of diseases in the reflection on the work priorities of the occupational disease commissions", which could lead, at the end of an expert assessment, to the creation of new tables of occupational diseases.
The revision of the tables is a decision of the State, after consultation with these commissions.
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