From BBC website - Shift Work bad for health

[Guest guest]

Shift work linked to health risks

 

The researchers looked at oil-rig workers

Employees working split shifts could be harming their health, Health

and Safety Executive research has suggested.

A study found offshore oil rig workers who worked seven nights then

seven days had a higher risk of heart disease than those who stayed

on days or nights.

 

Split-shift workers were also more tired and inattentive, New

Scientist magazine reported.

 

Occupational health expert Cary Cooper said involving staff in

designing shift patterns reduced health problems.

 

People who feel they have some control over their working lives are

then less likely to have illnesses

 

Professor Cary Cooper, Lancaster University

 

Researchers from Cardiff University and the University of Guildford

in Surrey examined the health of 45 offshore oil rig workers.

 

Both compared the effect of the two main shift schedules on the men.

 

Over two weeks, they may have been asked to work 12 hour day-shifts

or night-shifts.

 

But the other group worked a split-shift of seven night-shifts

followed by seven day-shifts. Many preferred this pattern because it

got them into the habit of night-time sleeping before they went home.

 

However, the researchers found it was worse for their health.

 

Urine tests from men working the split-shift pattern showed levels of

melatonin, a hormone which regulates sleep and which is normally

secreted at night, did not become synchronised to new sleep times

after shift changes.

 

The men also had higher levels of fatty acids circulating in their

blood after meals, compared with the day-shift or adapted workers,

indicating they were at higher risk of heart disease, diabetes and

other metabolic disorders.

 

'Wider implications'

 

Josephine Arendt, a chronobiologist from the University of Surrey,

who carried out one of the studies, told New Scientist magazine: " The

swing shift is the killer. "

 

Andrew Smith of Cardiff University, who carried out the second study,

said workers should try to avoid split-shifts and other schedule

changes that put their body clocks out of kilter.

 

He said legislation which forced companies to stick to particular

schedules was unlikely, but he said people who did work split-shifts

could minimise the risks to their health by avoiding fatty and sugary

snacks at night.

 

A spokesman for the HSE told the BBC News website it had invested £1m

into a raft of studies into the effect of shift patterns on offshore

oil-rig workers.

 

He added: " The offshore oil rigs represent an excellent natural

laboratory with controlled conditions for work, rest, sleep and meals

and it is already becoming apparent that this research will have

implications in many other sectors of employment.

 

" When the programme is over, HSE intends to review the evidence and

consider appropriate action, which could include producing guidance

for both the industry and its own Inspectors on how fatigue and shift

work should be managed and optimised for health, safety and

performance. "

 

Professor Cary Cooper, based at Lancaster University, said: " If you

look at stress and health, people who feel they have some control

over their working lives are then less likely to have illnesses. "