Occupational and circadian epidemiology

With interest, we read the article by Gustavsson et al1 on the breast cancer risk in a cohort with night work. The authors started from two facts: first, ‘night shift work’2 3 was classified as ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’ (group 2A) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC); second, the evidence in humans was considered limited because of variable results and potential bias. Since prior studies had problems regarding exposure assessment, Gustavsson et al emphasised their very detailed registry-based data on night work. Yet, as key result the authors noted that ‘conclusions are limited due to a short period of follow-up and lack of information of night work before 2008’. Thus, this study perpetuates limited epidemiological evidence for the carcinogenicity of night work. Although the limited data on shift work are a drawback of this study, it is not the only...
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: PostScript Source Type: research