French court links flight attendant's breast cancer to her job in landmark ruling
A court in Bayonne, France, has recognised breast cancer as an occupational disease in the case of a former Air France flight attendant, a first for the country's aviation industry. The ruling, delivered in July and reviewed by the news agency Agence France-Presse, held that the woman's cancer could be linked to conditions she worked in over three decades.
The court cited night shifts, exposure to ionising radiation at high altitude and passive smoking as factors that could have contributed to the illness of Sophie Lainault, who is now in remission. It also noted that no genetic or lifestyle-related factor could otherwise explain her cancer.
Ms. Lainault, 59, accumulated 12,600 flight hours, of which 6,500 were at night, between 1989 and 2019. She began as a flight attendant and later served as a purser on long-haul flights for the country's flagship carrier. Smoking was permitted on Air France flights until 2000.
She told AFP that she had fought for two and a half years, with help from activists of the CFDT (French Democratic Confederation of Labour), to have the illness recognised. Before this verdict, two regional committees that assess occupational diseases had concluded that no link had been established in her case.
The judgment allows her to take early retirement, she said. It also ensures that any further treatment she may need will be fully reimbursed by the French health authorities, according to BBC News.
Her lawyer, Elisabeth Leroux, said the court's decision sets a legal precedent. "In France the link between breast cancer and certain hazards has been established for a number of professions, such as nurses… but this is the first time for an airhostess," she said.
A similar legal battle was fought in 2023 by another French breast cancer survivor, a nurse who had worked night shifts for 28 years. That case led to her cancer being recognised as an occupational disease.
The ruling draws attention to a wider body of research on the health risks faced by aircrew. A study published in August this year in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that flight attendants and pilots in the United States had the highest and second-highest proportions of deaths from radiation-related cancers among the 503 occupations examined.
The team, led by first author Vishal Patel, a clinical fellow in surgery at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, examined nearly 13 million death certificates in the United States from 2020 to 2024, covering 503 occupations, including about 14,000 pilots and 7,000 flight attendants.
About 6.9 per cent of deaths among flight attendants and 6.7 per cent among pilots were from radiation-related cancers, the analysis found. These proportions were higher than those for any other occupation studied, including nuclear technologists, who are routinely exposed to radiation from non-cosmic sources, according to Harvard Medical School. Aircrew are also more likely to be diagnosed with certain cancers than the general population, it says.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aircrew accumulate an estimated 3 to 6 millisieverts of cosmic radiation a year, depending on flight paths. That is an order of magnitude above the estimated 0.4 millisieverts received annually by an average air traveller taking 10 cross-country round trips a year.
In France, breast cancer is the deadliest cancer among women, causing nearly 13,000 deaths each year. The World Health Organization estimates that breast cancer caused about 6,94,000 deaths worldwide in 2024.
The Bayonne judgment applies to Ms. Lainault's individual claim. In France, recognition of an occupational disease is decided case by case, and her lawyers say the outcome may encourage similar claims from other aircrew. The case also adds to a continuing debate over the health effects of regular night work, an issue that extends well beyond aviation.
