Researchers from Queen's University in Kingston found that working night shifts for more than 30 years increases the risk of breast cancer in women.
Gone are those days when office timings ranged from 9 in the morning to 5 in the evening. With business outsourcing becoming extremely popular, shift work has become common across the country. While such timings wreak havoc on the biological clock, a new study claims that night shifts also increase the risk of breast cancer.
Researchers from Queen's University in Kingston found that women that work night shifts for more than 30 years are at a higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who work regular office hours.
The accuracy of these findings is yet to be established because of issues regarding assessment of exposure and the failure to capture the diversity of shift work patterns. Most similar studies previously undertaken have been conducted on nurses rather than the general population.
Same aged women from Vancouver, British Columbia, and Kingston were studied in the research. Of these, 1134 women had breast cancer and 1179 women didn't have the disease. They were asked about their work shift patterns and their hospital records were analysed
Researchers noted one in every three women in both groups worked in night shifts. Researchers could not tell for certain whether working in night shifts for less than 15 years or between 15 and 29 years increased breast cancer risks but a definite risk increase was observed in women who worked night shifts for more than 30 years.
"As shift work is necessary for many occupations, understanding which specific shift patterns increase breast cancer risk, and how night shift work influences the pathway to breast cancer, is needed for the development of healthy workplace policy," says professor Kristan Aronson, co-authour of the study in a press release
Though the reason behind breast cancer risk has been linked to melatonin, researchers suggest that sleep disturbance, which upset body rhythm and Vitamin D levels can also be the cause.
