Excerpted from Yahoo! News :
Annie Thebaud-Mony, director of research at France's National Institute for Health and Medical Research, turned down the "Legion d'Honneur" in a letter to Housing Minister Cecile Duflot made public on Saturday.
"My act is intended as a call for citizens, but also for parliament to act, for the respect of basic rights to life, health and dignity," she said in her letter to the ministry, dated July 31.
"We want to be taken seriously when we expose the deterioration of working conditions ... the drama of workplace accidents and occupational diseases...," she added.
She denounced what she said was a misguided debate over the issue of safe levels of certain toxic substances.
Read more at Le Figaro : Une chercheuse refuse la Légion d'honneur
