LA SILICOSE ET LES MALADIES DE L'AMIANTE EN FRANCE ET AU JAPON ; CARTOGRAPHIE, SOCIOLOGIE, HISTOIRE ET REFLEXION ETHIQUE – SMAFJ

・Main objective Our scientific cooperation aims at developing a better integrated method of recognition and evaluation of occupational and environmental risks, based on the case studies of silica and asbestos related diseases (SARD) like silicosis, asbestosis and mesothelioma in Japan and France, by both comparing and integrating various aspects and approaches in epidemiology, social engineering, sociology, history, geography and ethics in these two countries. ・Contents Our scientific cooperation consists firstly in enhancing the social visibility and scientific understanding of SARD, which have remained very limited to this date, but also more generally in improving the method of recognition and evaluation of occupational and environmental risk and contributing to the precautionary approach to various public health problems. In order to carry out the research concretely and effectively, four axes of comparison will be set: (1) between the French and Japanese societies, more specifically local areas in Seine-Saint-Denis (North-Eastern district of Paris) and Amagasaki and Sennan in Kôbe-Osaka district, (2) between a macroscopic spatial mapping method of diseases by using Geographic Information System (GIS) in natural sciences and a microscopic method in human sciences built on personal interviews with stakeholders including the affected persons, (3) between silicosis as a type of industrial disease and mesothelioma as a type of environmental disease, and (4) between the scientific knowledge on epidemiology or geography and the social and ethical evaluation of these risks. All the research results are to be assessed from the point of view of environmental justice, in which the equity of distribution of social risks is the main issue. B2. Features of the project and expected results ・Crossings of multidisciplinary researches in two countries Both Japanese and French teams have sufficient preparations for scientific investigations about SARD from the point of view of their method and contents. Thanks to their own previous researches in each country, they will be able to produce an integrated method of recognition and evaluation of risk of health in industrial society. The Japanese team has already worked with GIS for epidemiological data on industrial diseases and socio-ethical research about asbestos, through interviews and open multidisciplinary discussion including active NPOs or local people. From intensive Japanese-French cooperative crossings of multidisciplinary researches, it follows a better multidisciplinary approach to policy of public health, making it possible to apply it also to other countries and similar problems in new industrial societies in Asia, for example. This project also makes it possible for young researchers or graduate students, at a relatively early stage of their careers, to have access to various methods and aspects of sciences that are related to these diseases, which are a critical but invisible phenomena of society, with an international dimension.