:: BIRMINGHAM behind the scenes :: An insight into Birmingham’s invisible army of night workers

The link between night shift work and breast cancer has been published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and is mentioned here in their research portfolio:

Center for Disease Control and Prevention 1

“Recent epidemiologic evidence suggests that occupational exposures to electromagnetic fields and light at night, from working night and/or rotating shifts, may increase female breast cancer risk“

They have also undertaken research and found links between night shift workundertaken by nurses and instances of miscarriages:

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention 2

“NIOSH researchers collaborated with the Harvard School of Public Health to send a supplemental questionnaire concerning potential occupational risk factors to a subset of the Nurses Health Study II cohort resulting in published work reporting an increased risk for miscarriage among nurses who worked night shift during their first trimester”

The Journal of the National Cancer Institute has also published findings that support an increased risk of colorectal cancer among night shift workers:

Working the “graveyard” shift increases risk of colorectal cancer

“Working night shifts can be hazardous to health. Women who work rotating night shifts face an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer, a new prospective observational study has found (Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2003;5:825-8).

Researchers led by Dr Eva Schernhammer of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Applied Cancer Research in Vienna, Austria, uncovered this link by following 78 586 women nurses who were enrolled in a longitudinal epidemiological study known as the nurses health study”

Further reading:

Keeping the ‘grave’ out of ‘graveyard shift’

Cheating sleep can prove costly

Graveyard shift linked to cancer risk

Night Shift Work May Heighten Risk for Cancer

Night Shift Work May Cause Cancer

BBC News | HEALTH | Night shifts ‘increase breast cancer risk’