Industry-Oriented Science and the Invisibility of Occupational Cancers: Case Studies in the Mining Sector in France

For more than a century, the evolution of research relating to public health in general, and occupational risks in particular, has been largely dominated by industrial needs and strategies. They play a role, not only in the financing of the studies carried out, but also in their design, thus feeding into the uncertainty of where dangers exist. One of the main issues underlying this uncertainty relates to the invisibility of work-related diseases, and, in particular, occupational cancers.

Based on multidisciplinary surveys in the social sciences and life sciences—which challenge the dominant monocausal model of understanding the links between cancer and risk factors—the first part of this article demonstrates how a reductive interpretation of the cause of cancer perpetuates uncertainty, inscribed under
the ‘paradigm of doubt’, while hindering our knowledge and recognition of occupational cancers. Two case studies in the French mining sector illustrate how the danger of clearly identified carcinogens can always be called into question, and rights to the recognition of occupational diseases can be denied for workers
who suffer, maintaining their invisibility.

Hence, the paradigm of doubt, which dominates public health, allows industrialists, as well as state actors—today, as yesterday—to rely on uncertainty as a means of looking favourably at the reopening of mining sites in inhabited areas, without taking into account health issues. The cancer epidemic continues to grow, reaching an estimated incidence of 385,000 new cases per year in France in 2015 (compared with 150,000 in 1984). But the uncertainty about the health effects of industrial risks, the dangers of which are proven, still currently favours the continuation of conditions that will cause future cancers, particularly among those exposed to carcinogens, namely, the workers.

Keywords: paradigm of doubt, causality, occupational cancers, industrial risk, mining work.