Two former employees of the Triskalia company complain of hypersensitivity to chemicals, which they attribute to exposure to pesticides.
Can hypersensitivity to pesticides be recognized as an occupational disease? The question is at the heart of a legal proceeding involving two former employees of the food company Triskalia in Plouisy (Côtes-d’Armor).
The two former employees demanded this Tuesday before the Court of Appeal in Rennes that their hypersensitivity to chemicals be recognized as an occupational disease, the newspaper indicates West France.
The two employees were assigned to the transport of cereals treated with phytosanitary products between 2009 and 2010 at Nutrea-Triskalia. According to their lawyer, the two men developed hypersensitivity to chemicals.
Lung, eye …
They would thus suffer from pulmonary and eye problems, digestive disorders and a depressive state. “A simple smell of gasoline can upset them,” says the daily. The complainants consider that this hypersensitivity is linked to their repeated exposure to plant protection products. “In 2012, one of them became uneasy, simply by trimming his hedge. The symptoms returned. He ended up in the emergency room, ”says the lawyer.
“The hunters, regularly called upon to rid the company of the hundred or so pigeons circling around their silo, did not have to intervene in 2010. The pigeons were all dead! “, Can we still read in the newspaper, which quotes the lawyer of the plaintiffs.
Employees with cancer
A first unfavorable opinion of the regional committee for the recognition of occupational diseases, made up of doctors, was issued. This is the appeal hearing. The court will deliver its decision on September 6.
The Triskalia company had already made the headlines when two other former employees suffering from cancer and exposed to phytosanitary products at the Plouisy livestock feed manufacturing site were compensated. In September 2016, the Saint-Brieuc Social Security Business Court awarded more than € 100,000 to each. The damage was then considered to be an industrial accident.
In April, the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions asked the European Commission to open an investigation into the use of pesticides in the Triskalia cooperative, after several employees complained of having been exposed during their work.
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