Graveyard shift work linked to cancer

[Horse with no Name]

I read these same results 5 years ago--they evolved from the Women's Health Initiative Studies, yet the American Cancer Society isn't "convinced". I wonder why they are just now making a big deal about it?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071129/ap_on_he_me/night_shift_cancer
Next month, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization, will add overnight shift work as a probable carcinogen. The American Cancer Society says it will likely follow. Up to now, the U.S. organization has considered the work-cancer link to be "uncertain, controversial or unproven."

The higher cancer rates don't prove working overnight can cause cancer. There may be other factors common among graveyard shift workers that raise their risk for cancer.

However, scientists suspect that overnight work is dangerous because it disrupts the circadian rhythm, the body's biological clock. The hormone melatonin, which can suppress tumor development, is normally produced at night.

If the graveyard shift theory eventually proves correct, millions of people worldwide could be affected. Experts estimate that nearly 20 percent of the working population in developed countries work night shifts.

[kimmerspixelated]

1. Also, Good old Sunshine(Vit D)

is surpressed, so naturally, the cancer rates go up.

[K Gardner]

2. Big Pharm probably has a new drug coming out to help with

circadian rhythm problems. And you're spot on, as nurses, we've been using that study for five years to try to get off of night shift :-) It's been around awhile, and so are we...

Also in the same study, links to some of the most horrible disasters (i.e., Chernobyl, etc) with being on night shift.

[Mike03]

3. Glad someone posted this

I was thinking about this story all morning.

As the OP points out, similar results were obtained several years ago in a study of nurses, and speculation was that this had to do with hormonal suppression (ie, suppression of melatonin or scattered neurotransmitters), possibly produced by working under fluorescent or other lights, most probably at a time during the 24 hour cycle when the body most wants to shut down and recuperate.

It would be fascinating to see a study simply of "night owls"--people who are quasi nocturnal out of habit or preference, rather than people who are working stressful jobs at night, and see if there is any correlation between being up at night and cancer vs. working and cancer.