Previous research, made by the World Health Organization, raised concerns about nightshift workers developing breast cancer. An updated report finds no link between being prone to cancer from working the nightshift.
In the past, it was suggested that too much exposure to electric light can interfere with the body’s internal clock, which can result to decreasing melatonin levels. That leads to the body producing 80% less tissue-repairing chemicals which naturally maintains the damage caused to the body throughout the day, exposing higher risk of mutation resulting to cancer.
But new information gathered does not support the previous suggestions, as recent data funded by charity, Breast Cancer Now and created by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London, confirmed that there is no direct correlation between nightshift workers developing cancer or breast cancer.
This new information was found when only 2,059 women developed breast cancer, out of the 102,869 women that took part in the UK, over 10 years.
Dr Michael Jones, who led the research at ICR, emphasised that: “In our new study we found no overall link between women having done night shift work in the last ten years and their risk of breast cancer, regardless of the different types of work and age at which they started such work”.
However, a long periods of nightshift work could have other health risks to workers, such as heart disease, migraines, gastrointestinal problems, obesity and many more. But the reassurance of it not leading to a cancerous disease will benefit many nightshift workers.
In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.
We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.
