It has been awhile since there are many arguments that a work at night is damaging for human health, but not many of us could have assumed how big that damage actually is.
The Danish Government has begun paying in the compensation to people, who after several years of work at night have got a cancer. Action of the Danish Government is a consequence of decision of the competent agency of the United Nations to acclaim the night working hours as a likely cause of cancer.
In other words, work at night has been classified in the same category of danger as the work with industrial chemicals. Unsettled sleep, exhaustion, stomach problems, and increased risk of accidents at work – are the arguments that work at night is damaging for health, are accumulating for years.
Danish Government is the first one in the world to start paying in the compensation to people, who have paid even a bigger price for several years, which they have spent by working at night and have got cancer.
Uma Mankopf used to be a steward in the biggest Scandinavian air-company SAS. Thirty years she was flying around the world by doing the job in which the long night shifts were a regular thing, reports BBC.
Uma Mankopf is one among almost 40 women, who have received from the Danish Government the compensation because of cancer, which they have got after a long list of years they have spent by working at night. These compensations are result of decision of the authority of the UN – International Agency for Research on Cancer, which operates at the World Health Organization (WHO).
That agency has concluded that the night shifts probably cause the cancer and are only one category below the proved carcinogens, as asbestos is.
The chief of the UN's agency, Vincent Colianni says that the conclusion has been adopted on the basis of list of researches from around the world: "We have gathered many experts and they have concluded that a work in night shifts probably causes cancer. Night shifts have been put in the category 2-A. Collected arguments are practically not differing from the arguments in case of some industrial chemical."
The Danish Government is in its relation towards consequences of night shifts far ahead the rest of the world.
The unions in Britain estimate that around 20% of total number of employed works the night shifts.
The Professor Andrew Patterson, specialist for protection at work at the university Sterling, says that Britain stagnates in protection of their health in relation to Scandinavia: "Situation should be looked from all sides and that it why I think that a cancer as a professional disease represents a huge problem for health in Britain. We have not got used to recognizing the damage which has been suffered by workers and their communities, where the night shifts are usual events. That is wrong – damage exists, but we do not see it and do not take it into consideration."
The competent authorities in Britain have ordered a special report on consequences of night shift, but its results will be known in two years, notifies BBC, and reports portal ekapija.