The health and safety watchdog is monitoring developments in research that shows a link between women working regular night shifts and breast cancer.

Danish research published by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work recently provided evidence of a link between night shifts and breast cancer, specifically for those women working intense night shifts for longer duration.

“This is not the first study to be published which found a possible association between shift work and the incidence of harmful effects, including breast cancer – similar studies have been appearing since the 1970s,” a spokesman for the Occupational Health and Safety Authority said.

However, he cautioned, these studies shared common limitations since there were other factors that could be contributing to cancer risk apart from the night shift.

“Confounding variables have not been completely eliminated – this is of particular relevance in those situations where there is no one single cause, but an ill-effect has a multi-factorial causation or association, as is the case with breast cancer, linked as it is to a number of lifestyle choices, as well as a number of factors inherent to any particular individual,” the spokesman said.

The OHSA will monitor further developments in this field, as well as in the case of other new, potential cancer risks, he said.

The UK’s national Health and Safety Agency is taking seriously the research linking breast cancer with night shifts and has commissioned the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University to undertake an extensive study on the relationship between shift work and disease.

Helen Muscat, from the Action for Breast Cancer Foundation, agreed that the issue should be taken seriously in Malta. This was not the first time this link was proven and the link seemed to be getting stronger, she said.