Night shift work may raise cancer risk, say researchers

By IANS
>Sunday December 2, 01:09 PM
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>New York, Dec 2 (IANS) Working in night shifts may increase the risk of cancer, a team of international scientists said in a report.
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>In their report, the team of 44 scientists from 10 countries commissioned by the World Health Organization's International Agency on Cancer Research is said to have found evidences of a connection between the disease and the people working in night shifts.
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>That evidence included a higher rate of breast cancer in female nurses who work in night shifts, said the report published on online edition of health magazine WebMD.
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>The scientists also reviewed studies in which animals were exposed to light at night, disrupting the animals' circadian rhythm - the regular changes in mental and physical characteristics that occur in the course of a day.
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>They found sufficient evidence of a connection between circadian rhythm disruption and cancer, the report published in the journal 'The Lancet' said.
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>'Shift work that involves circadian rhythm disruption is probably carcinogenic to humans,' writes Kurt Straif, who works for the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France.
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>The scientists noted that night shift work might raise the risk of cancer by suppressing production of melatonin, a hormone chemical involved in the circadian rhythm.
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>They also mentioned in their report that people working as a painter are carcinogenic, and those who work as a firefighter are 'possibly carcinogenic' because of the on-the-job chemical exposure.