Radiation link in flight attendant's breast cancer, French court finds

A French court has for the first time recognised cosmic radiation as a factor in the breast cancer of a long-serving flight attendant.

Sophie Lainault, a 59 year-old former stewardess on Air France, sought to have her cancer recognised as an occupational disease, brought on by conditions at work.

This has now been confirmed in a landmark court ruling in the southwestern town of Bayonne, which said that cosmic radiation was one of three carcinogenic hazards arising from her profession. The other two were passive smoking and prolonged night work.

The decision means that Lainault, who is in remission from her cancer, can take early retirement with any further treatment fully reimbursed by the French health system.

And by establishing breast cancer as an officially-recognised risk for flight crews, the court has also cleared the way for many other similar claims, lawyers say.

"My dearest wish is that the decision encourages other women who up until now have not had the courage to take this step," Lainault said.

As stewardess and later purser on Air France airliners, Lainault clocked up 12,600 flight hours between 1989 and 2019. More than half of these were at night.

Many long-distance high-altitude flights from Paris would have taken her near the North Pole, where exposure to radiation from space – strictly speaking particles from the sun and other stars – is the most intense.