Posts Tagged ‘shift work’

Graveyard shift may be living up to its name: shift work & nursing health risks

Wednesday, January 14th, 2015

The night shift is commonly referred to as the graveyard shift and a new study about associated health risks shows that it might be aptly named.

Previously, the World Health Organization has linked working the night shift to cancer, based on studies with nurses. Now, a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine this month, shows that nurses who worked night shifts over an extended number of years experienced an increase in mortality rates for all cause (11 percent higher) and cardiovascular disease (19 percent higher.) In addition, women who worked rotating night shifts for 15+ years had a 25 percent higher risk of lung cancer.

Kim Krisberg summarizes the study findings in her post at The Pump Handle.

“To conduct the study, researchers analyzed data from the Nurses’ Health Study, which was established in 1976 and involved nearly 122,000 nurses. The night shift analysis was based on 22 years of health and behavioral data follow-up among nearly 75,000 of the participating nurses. In a press release about the findings, study co-author Schernhammer, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, described the study as “one of the largest prospective cohort studies worldwide with a high proportion of rotating night shift workers and long follow-up time. A single occupation (in this case, nursing) provides more internal validity than a range of different occupational groups, where the association between shift work and disease outcomes could be confounded by occupational differences.”

The full study can be accessed here: Total and Cause-Specific Mortality of U.S. Nurses Working Rotating Night Shifts (PDF). In the summary conclusions, the authors say that the study results “add to prior evidence of a potentially detrimental effect of rotating night shift work on health and longevity.”

Related links:

Cavalcade of Risk, dereriorating market, breast cancer, labor unions, and more

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Cavalcade of Risk #87 is brought to you from the land down under – Andrew of Australia’s OzRisk is this week’s host – check it out!
Deterioration in Work Comp market – In his blog Comp Time, Roberto Ceniceros discusses a grim recent A.M. Best report pointing to deteriorating conditions in the workers comp industry. “According to Best’s composite, consisting of 103 insurers, net premiums written plunged 30% from a high of $20.9 billion in 2004. Insurers also experienced underwriting losses of $1.2 billion in 2007 and $1.5 billion in 2008. Best expects challenging conditions for insurers to continue well into 2010.” Ceniceros also cites other recent reports and economic indicators in his post. Related: Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters offers his thoughts on the workers comp industry’s fading fortunes. He notes a few positives in the offing: some brokers and agents are expecting the pricing war to taper off, investment returns look to be recovering somewhat, and health reform might relieve cost-shifting.
NIOSH – HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently announced that John Howard, M.D. has been named new Director of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Dr. Howard served as NIOSH director from 2002 through 2008. He also served as coordinator of HHS’ World Trade Center Health Programs from 2006 to 2008. Laura Walter of EHS Today talks about the ASSE and AIHA favorable reaction to Howard’s reappointment.
Night shift work linked to breast cancer – The BBC reports that the Danish government has begun paying compensation to women who have developed breast cancer after long spells working nights. Authorities acted in response to a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the UN’s World Health Organisation. The IARC, which studies and ranks cancer risks, ranks night shift work just below asbestos as a probable cause of cancer. This ranking was based on various studies and reports linking cancer to night shift work hours, including a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute which showed a 36% greater risk of breast cancer for women who had worked night shifts for more than 30 years, compared with women who had never worked nights.
Labor unions and the economy – In response to a recent Gallup poll on labor unions showing support at an all time low, Paul Secunda of Workplace Prog Blog and some of his readers offer thoughts on why a rise in unemployment correlates negatively with support for unions.
Health & Safety Briefs

Walmart locks night shift workers in

Sunday, January 18th, 2004

The New York Times today features a shocking story on night shift employees who are locked in at Walmart and its affiliated stores. (free registration required) In a work practice that seems like something out of a Dickens novel or a third world sweatshop, exits are locked at night under the guise of protecting workers. The article relates the story of one employee, Michael Rodriguez of Corpus Christi, TX, who waited hours to get help for a crushed ankle because all exits but the fire exit were locked, and there was no manager with a key. He had been led to believe that he and his supervisor would both be fired if he used the fire exit.

“The reason for Mr. Rodriguez’s delayed trip to the hospital was a little-known Wal-Mart policy: the lock-in. For more than 15 years, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, has locked in overnight employees at some of its Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores. It is a policy that many employees say has created disconcerting situations, such as when a worker in Indiana suffered a heart attack, when hurricanes hit in Florida and when workers’ wives have gone into labor.”

Company spokespeople maintain the practice is to protect workers who work in high crime areas, but employees and other industry insiders say the practice is primarily to curtail “shrinkage” or theft.
It’s boggling to know that such draconian work environments still exist in this country. A little over 12 years ago, 25 workers lost their lives while trying to kick down doors in a fiery inferno in a chicken processing plant in North Carolina. Yet the practice still persists, although one might think these would be isolated incidents rather than accepted policy in the world’s most prominent retailer.
There is no more fundamental mandate than worker safety. Not only is protecting workers the right thing to do, it’s usually the cheapest thing to do in terms of risk management.