Les risques de santé à l’épreuve des nuisances. Le cas des plaintes en santé environnementale

Abstract

Environmental health complaints refer to the challenges lodged against technical devi­ces in the occurrence of health damages caused by the harmful effects they produce. The research work undertaken on the formulation of these complaints shows the difficulties they have in proving harmful effects in terms of health health hazards and esta­blishing long term collective mobilizations. The article investigates the weaknesses of these complaints. To base the discussion, it exposes a complaint relative to a process­sing centre for household waste. In building on the cultural analysis developed by Douglas Mary, it discusses the development of the complaints from the angle of the formation of social and cognitive conventions. It concludes that they express perceptions of a degradation in lifestyles which do not manage to stabilize themselves in public expression and which lead to a fallback onto private spheres.

Keywords

• environmental health
• risks
• cancer
• public complaints
• private fallback