The promise of big data in public health has fueled expectations for leveraging electronic health records (EHRs) to advance epidemiological research, particularly in occupational health. Yet, hospitals-where patients' occupational histories are routinely collected-often do not transform this information into usable epidemiological data. This article examines the organisational and infrastructural barriers that hinder the use of hospital data for studying occupational cancers, focusing on blood cancers in France. Drawing on interviews, questionnaires, and ethnographic observations with onco-haematologists and Occupational Diseases Consultation Centers (ODCCs), we document two key mechanisms: (1) inscription practices, where clinicians collect but rarely record occupational histories in a structured, epidemiologically useful format; and (2) delegation practices, where referrals to specialised ODCCs are erratic and depend on local, ad-hoc relationships. Despite onco-hematologists' awareness of occupational risk factors, their documentation in medical records is fragmented, and referrals to ODCCs are inconsistent, resulting in non-representative data, unfit for epidemiological research. Considering the hospital as a whole as an information infrastructure (Bowker and Star, 2000) allows us to describe how it absorbs substantial information about patients' jobs and potential exposures, both through routine clinical work and specialised consultations. However, we also demonstrate that it converts only a small fraction of this information into standardised data that can be reliably incorporated into epidemiological research infrastructures. This study highlights the need for structural reforms aiming at stronger integration between clinical and occupational health services to bridge this gap. Our findings shed light on the social production of data disorder, which jeopardizes big data promises in the field of occupational health epidemiology. We call for greater attention to organisational and infrastructural constraints in hospital settings.

This article focuses on social movements’ engagement in the field of environmental health through a particular form of knowledge production: “popular expology.” This concept reflects the growing development of initiatives aimed at producing data on human exposure to pollutants, rather than establishing the causes of health effects, as “popular epidemiology” does. To develop our concept, we draw on the case of the French anti-pesticide movement. For more than a decade, organizations from this movement have increasingly invested in the performance of studies designed to demonstrate the presence of pesticide residues. We show that popular expology is encouraged by the difficulties social movements face in producing epidemiological data, by the development of a market for affordable pesticide detection tools, and by the increasing accessibility of toxicological and epidemiological knowledge produced by research and expert institutions. We also analyze two roles that popular expology plays for social movements: on the one hand, embodying invisible pollutions and raising the attention of the media to this issue; on the other hand, demonstrating weaknesses in regulatory risk assessment. This article, therefore, suggests the need for a broadening of our understanding of the use and production of science as a political mode of action for environmental social movements.

The widespread use of synthetic pesticides-a key technology in the intensification of agriculture-has been accompanied by the production and increasing circulation of waste: expired products, spoiled containers, contaminated equipment, etc. Based on qualitative research, this article analyses the slow emergence of these objects as an industrial and administrative problem from the 1960s to the 2000s. In particular, it shows how, in France, this process was mainly driven by industrial actors (primarily pesticide manufacturers) who saw the organization of an agricultural waste management system as a means of renewing the promise of environmental virtue of their activities. More generally, the article analyses the creation agricultural waste management systems as maintenance operations, whereby industrial actors seek to secure their economic positions, strengthen the integration of existing systems, and avoid challenging industrial agriculture. The article encourages social scientists to consider the industrialization of agriculture through its most invisible overflows: its waste.

The widespread use of synthetic pesticides—a key technology in the intensification of agriculture—has been accompanied by the production and increasing circulation of waste: expired products, spoiled containers, contaminated equipment, etc. Based on qualitative research, this article analyses the slow emergence of these objects as an industrial and administrative problem from the 1960s to the 2000s. In particular, it shows how, in France, this process was mainly driven by industrial actors (primarily pesticide manufacturers) who saw the organization of an agricultural waste management system as a means of renewing the promise of environmental virtue of their activities. More generally, the article analyses the creation agricultural waste management systems as maintenance operations, whereby industrial actors seek to secure their economic positions, strengthen the integration of existing systems, and avoid challenging industrial agriculture. The article encourages social scientists to consider the industrialization of agriculture through its most invisible overflows: its waste.

This article presents a comparative reading of four handbooks recently published in France on environmental sociology. It first recalls that these publications are part of a process of institutionalization of this field of sociology that has been underway for several decades. The article highlights strong convergences between the handbooks. All of them emphasize the links between environmental sociology and general sociology. They also stress its ability to document the biophysical foundations of social activities without essentializing them, and to document environmental inequalities. The article also notes some differences between the books, particularly with regard to how to engage in collaboration with other disciplines within and outside the social sciences. Finally, the article proposes avenues for the development of environmental sociology, drawing on support from research traditions that are rarely mentioned in the various textbooks reviewed.

In France, the increased research focus on the effects of work on health over the last thirty years has sometimes been described as the "epidemiological turn". This paper shows that this "turn" is in fact a long process, the result of efforts by a wide range of players, and not the direct consequence of the health scandals that marred health policies in the 1990s. We analyse the development of research carried out at the Instituts universitaires de m & eacute;decine du travail (university institutes of occupational pathology, or IUMT), which were central to the study of occupational pathologies during the twentieth century. Based on the case of the Lyon IUMT, this paper describes how university hospital physicians slowly shifted from an occupational pathology approach to a population approach. It highlights the fact that their research gradually became detached from local occupational risk prevention issues, but remained on the fringes of health surveillance systems.

En France, l’intensification des recherches visant à objectiver les effets du travail sur la santé ces trente dernières années a été parfois qualifiée de « tournant épidémiologique ». Cet article montre que ce « tournant » est en réalité un long processus, produit de l’investissement de multiples acteurs, et non la conséquence directe des scandales sanitaires qui ont émaillé les politiques de santé depuis les années 1990. Nous analysons l’évolution des recherches menées dans les Instituts universitaires de médecine du travail (IUMT), institutions centrales de l’étude des pathologies professionnelles au cours du xx e siècle. À partir du cas de l’IUMT de Lyon, l’article décrit la lente conversion des médecins hospitalo-universitaires de pathologies professionnelles à une approche populationnelle. Il souligne que leurs recherches se sont progressivement détachées des enjeux locaux de la prévention des risques professionnels mais sont restées en marge des dispositifs de surveillance sanitaire.

La médecine du travail se situe en bas de la hiérarchie symbolique des professions médicales. En son sein, le sous-segment hospitalo-universitaire n’est cependant pas dénué d’un certain prestige. Dans une perspective attentive à l’évolution des liens entre les groupes professionnels et leur environnement institutionnel, nous éclairons le processus socio-historique de constitution de ce sous-segment depuis près d’un siècle. À partir d’une enquête réalisée auprès de praticiens de Centres de consultation de pathologie professionnelle, nous montrons que, par contraste avec leurs collègues travaillant pour les entreprises, ils sont parvenus à se détacher de leurs liens fonctionnels avec les intérêts patronaux. Nous mettons cependant en évidence d’autres dépendances, plus discrètes, qui lient ces praticiens à une série d’acteurs institutionnels : les directions d’hôpitaux, les agences sanitaires ou les ministères de tutelle. Nous soulignons comment ces dépendances ont contribué à l’évolution des activités de ces médecins, de plus en plus marquées par un investissement dans la recherche et l’attention aux facteurs environnementaux. Nous pointons également que ces dépendances pèsent sur leur capacité à développer une offre de consultation pour la reconnaissance des maladies professionnelles.

Occupational medicine is at the bottom of the symbolic hierarchy of medical professions. Within this field, however, the university hospital sub-segment is not without a certain prestige. From the perspective of the changing relationships between professional groups and their institutional environment, we highlight the socio-historical process by which this sub-segment has been constituted over almost a century. Based on a survey of practitioners in occupational pathology clinics, we show that, unlike their corporate counterparts, they have managed to disengage from their functional ties to employers' interests. However, we also highlight other, more subtle dependencies that link them to a range of institutional actors: hospital management, health agencies and the relevant ministries. We show how these dependencies have contributed to the development of their activities, which are increasingly characterised by investment in research and attention to environmental factors. We also point out that they have an impact on their ability to develop a consultation service for the recognition of occupational diseases.

Il existe aujourd’hui une large sous-reconnaissance des maladies professionnelles en France. Cette sous-reconnaissance est d’autant plus forte qu’elle porte sur des maladies qui, comme celles potentiellement liée à l’exposition aux pesticides, sont multifactorielles et à latence longue. Pour lutter contre cette sous-reconnaissance, la médecine–en particulier la médecine du travail, mais aussi la médecine clinique–peut jouer un rôle central : produire des connaissances scientifiques et médicales susceptibles de faire évoluer le dispositif de réparation ; les faire circuler auprès des patients ; rédiger pour ces derniers les documents médico-administratifs nécessaires et les accompagner dans leurs démarches. En s’appuyant sur plusieurs enquêtes sociologiques menées depuis 10 ans, cette présentation insistera pourtant sur l’engagement limité de la médecine face à l’enjeu de reconnaissance des maladies professionnelles liées aux pesticides. Elle soulignera la faible formation des praticiens vis-à-vis des maladies professionnelles liées aux pesticides ; leurs moyens limités pour accéder à nombre de victimes (exploitant.e.s agricoles, salariés précaires, etc.) ; leur représentation parfois limitée des expositions ; leur focalisation sur les opérations de soin, au détriment des opérations de réparation et de prévention. Elle mettre en particulier l’accent sur l’hôpital comme lieu potentiel de prise en charge centralisé des victimes et montrera que, plutôt qu’une énième invocation d’une meilleure information du personnel médical, il vaut mieux inscrire dans l’infrastructure hospitalière la question de la réparation pour lutter contre la sous-reconnaissance.

Since the end of the 20th century, numerous organizations have been involved in denouncing the impact of work on psychological health. Observers have pointed out the structural ambiguity of such a political claim. On the one hand, it legitimizes the denunciation of certain developments in working conditions. On the other hand, it is also the vector for promoting a psychological framing likely to weaken and individualize social struggles in the workplace. In this article, we show that these debates are an object of reflection within activist organizations. For them, the politicization of the mental suffering is all the more complex that this topic is constructed as a public problem and that it is promoted by political and trade-union actors with whom they are not necessarily aligned. We analyze the case of one of these organizations, Solidarite Paysans, in the face of the problem of the psychological suffering of farmers.

Background To ensure a high level of public health and environmental protection, authorities that deliver scientific expertise to inform decision-makers and the public at large need to be independent from external stakeholders and free of conflicts of interest. This independence requires effective rules for managing links of interest (LoIs) and a high level of transparency, including publication of declarations of interest (DoIs) where appropriate. In the particular case of plant protection products (PPPs) within the European Union, these requirements should apply to all Competent Authorities contributing to the marketing authorization processes. Methods A comparative analysis of LoIs management procedures was performed on a selection of ten National Competent Authorities from different member states (NCAs). This analysis was based on (i) the identification of 17 criteria aiming at characterizing good practices for LoIs management; (ii) a survey of ten NCAs, based on an analysis of their institutional websites and their responses to official mail requests. Results The comparative analysis showed: (i) a frequent lack of transparency of NCAs regarding their procedures for managing LoIs; (ii) a significant heterogeneity between the NCAs’ LoIs management rules, even though they are in charge of comparable missions regarding the marketing of PPPs; (iii) substantial gaps between the LoIs management procedures adopted by several NCAs and the good practices that are promoted by EFSA. Current limits on their practices regarding LoIs management might open ways for undue external influences on scientific expertise, and ultimately impact negatively the risk management options adopted by national or European authorities. Limitations of this study and its extension for a more thorough overview of the current LoIs management practices are also discussed. Conclusions LoIs management and transparency rules need to be improved across NCAs, given their contribution as (co-)rapporteurs or peer reviews participants to the health and environmental risk assessment steps of the EFSA processes. To this end, a common minimum set of rules should be defined by EFSA; recommendations are proposed, based on the best practices implemented by the investigated NCAs. Such progress would contribute promoting high-quality unbiased scientific expertise and enhance EU citizens’ trust.

Since the end of the 20th century, numerous organizations have been involved in denouncing the impact of work on psychological health. Observers have pointed out the structural ambiguity of such a political claim. On the one hand, it legitimizes the denunciation of certain developments in working conditions. On the other hand, it is also the vector for promoting a psychological framing likely to weaken and individualize social struggles in the workplace. In this article, we show that these debates are an object of reflection within activist organizations. For them, the politicization of the mental suffering is all the more complex that this topic is constructed as a public problem and that it is promoted by political and trade-union actors with whom they are not necessarily aligned. We analyze the case of one of these organizations, Solidarité Paysans, in the face of the problem of the psychological suffering of farmers.