Cancer risk linked to night shifts, study finds

Working night shifts for more than 30 years could double women’s risk of developing breast cancer, research suggests.

Nurses, cleaners, care workers, some shop workers, call centre handlers and others who work night shifts for a long term can have a twice as high risk of developing the disease than those who don’t, the study found.

Canadian researchers examined 1,134 women with breast cancer and 1,179 women without the disease, but of the same age. Women were questioned about their work and shift patterns and researchers also assessed the hospital records for the women who suffered from the disease. About a third of the women had a history of night shift work.