Social Sustainability
Shift Work
Work scheduled outside standard daytime hours — associated with sleep disruption, chronic disease and elevated accident risk, especially for night shifts.
Definition
Shift work is any work organisation in which workers succeed each other at the same workstations according to a pattern — rotating or fixed — extending operations beyond a single day shift. Epidemiological evidence links long-term night-shift work to elevated risks of cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes and certain cancers; in 2007 the IARC classified shift work involving circadian disruption as a Group 2A probable human carcinogen. Fatigue also raises accident risk, notably in safety-critical and driving work.
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