Night shift workers face increased breast cancer risk. Study looked at hundreds of women in diverse occupations.

Working night shifts for 30 years or more could increase breast cancer risk, a Canadian review suggests.

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) considers shift work as a probable carcinogen based on limited evidence in humans and stronger associations in animal studies.

Previous research on breast cancer risks associated with night shifts were largely based on nurses. Now Prof. Kristan Aronson of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., has extended those findings to include prolonged shift work in non-health professions as well. “Long-term night-shift work in a diverse mix of occupations is associated with increased breast cancer risk,” Aronson and her co-authors concluded in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Read the full article here – http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2013/07/02/breast-cancer-night-shift.html