Studies show working the night shift may cause cancer, says NGO

MANILA, Philippines—Claiming that working the night shift could cause cancer, an occupational health and safety NGO on Saturday scored the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) over its decision to allow pregnant women to work the late hours.

In a statement, the Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD) rapped the decision of Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz providing exemptions to the Labor Code ban on women doing night work.

“Night work is carcinogenic and it puts workers at risk. Recent studies have shown how night work increases the risk of getting breast cancer for women shift workers,” the IOHSAD said.

Worse, cancer caused by shift work is not a compensable disease in the country, it added.

The group said that based on the 2001 Rotating Night Shifts and Risk of Breast Cancer in Women Participating in the Nurses’ Health Study, researchers documented elevated risk for breast cancer in nurses in the United States.

“The nurses involved in the studies worked for many years as shift workers,” the IOHSAD said.

Shift work ‘carcinogenic’

“Then in December 2007, after a 10-year research, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organization (WHO) placed shift work under Classification 2A or probably carcinogenic to humans,” it said.

“Class 2A is used when there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals,” the group said.

It said researchers pointed to the Light-At-Night (LAN) theory, which states how night work disrupts the body’s production of melatonin, a known antioxidant capable of reducing estrogen levels.

“High levels of estrogen increase the risk of getting breast cancer. This disruption in the circadian rhythm caused by LAN was proposed as a potential cause of the increased risk,” the IOHSAD said.

“For pregnant women, aside from the cancer risk, studies have shown that mothers who do night work had an elevated risk of giving birth to babies with low birth weight compared to those who do not engage in night work,” the group said.

Pregnant women at risk

“In the 1989 Shift Work, Fetal Development and Course of Pregnancy which studied women in Finland and the 2004 Shift Work, Duration of Pregnancy and Birth Weight which was done in Denmark, the two studies came up with the same conclusion that pregnant women who do night work have increased risk of giving birth to babies with low birth weight,” it said.

Under current labor rules, business process outsourcing (BPO) companies that have 200 or more employees need only to “submit a filled-up checklist” on whether they adhere to existing health and safety standards in the workplace.

“Since there exists no union in the BPO industry, there is no representation from the workers’ side during self-assessment. Also, no company, (human resources) personnel or management in their right mind would implicate themselves in violating existing health and safety standards, making self-assessment on the adherence to safety standards an exercise in futility and an easy way out for erring companies,” the IOHSAD said.

Labor Code advisory

The country’s Labor Code prohibits women, “regardless of age,” from working in any industrial firm from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following day; in any commercial business “other than agricultural” between midnight to 6 a.m. the following day; and in any agricultural business “at night unless she is given a period of rest of not less than nine consecutive hours.”

But in an advisory issued last week, Baldoz said women employees may now be allowed to work at night if they are 18 years old and over.

The labor secretary also required employers to provide safe and healthful working conditions, and adequate/reasonable facilities such as sleeping/resting quarters in their establishments.

Baldoz also allowed pregnant women and nursing mothers to work at night only if a competent physician, other than the company physician, “shall certify their fitness to render night work, and specify in the case of pregnant employees the period that they can safely work.”

The IOHSAD, however, pointed out that “workplace inspection is weak” in the country, while in Denmark the government has “started compensating women workers who have developed breast cancer due to night work.”

“The many studies and the recent classification by the WHO of shift work as a Class 2A carcinogen should push the government and the DOLE to immediately add cancer due to shift work as a compensable disease,” the NGO said. –Philip Tubeza, Philippine Daily Inquirer