Working the night shit may cause cancer

Apparently soon, working the night shift will be added to the list of probable causes of cancer. It would be one among many such causes as UV light and diesel exhaust fumes. In the next month, the Agency of Research on Cancer will officially add this to list. The reason it had not been added earlier was that the link to cancer was "uncertain, controversial and unproven." The fact that working the night shift could make someone more prone to cancer is based on data collected by a man named Richard Stevens, who noticed that the incidence of breast cancer in women increased greatly after the introduction of night shifts in the 1930's. Scientists believe that having a work day begin at night is dangerous because it disrupts circadian rhythms (specifically, melatonin, which is known to suppress tumors, is created at night). The article explains how important it is not to disrupt your internal clock. This data, of course, is still found to be skeptical by some and it is merely a suggestion from a pattern of data.
I found this quite interesting and quite appropriate because it is a topic that is illustrated in the book and is part of the material on our next test. This article shows how important our internal clock, how important circadian rhythms, and how important SLEEP is in our lives. I though the article illustrated quite well that going against the nature of things usually is not a good idea and that too of one thing is usually bad. At least people working the night shift are getting paid more though!


http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/11/29/night.shift.cancer.ap/index.html