Two weeks ago, the headlines screamed “Cancer agency to add night jobs as probable carcinogen“.

Here in December, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization, will add overnight shift work as a probable carcinogen. The American Cancer Society says it will likely follow.

The higher cancer rates don’t prove working overnight can cause cancer. There may be other factors common among these workers that raise their risk for cancer.  Scientists believe that overnight work is dangerous because it disrupts the body’s biological clock. For example, the hormone melatonin, which can suppress tumor development, is normally produced at night.

If the third shift theory eventually proves correct, millions of people worldwide could be affected. Experts estimate that nearly 20 percent of the working population in developed countries work night shifts.

And here is today’s headline in USA Today: “Late shift proves deadly to more fast food workers“. 

Some 109 worker homicides at fast-food restaurants were reported from 2003 through 2006, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says. The number rose from 24 in 2005 to 28 in 2006, a 17% increase.

Compared with jobs with a greater reputation for late-night risks, the total is more than the 27 homicides of taxi drivers in 2006. It’s just seven less than the 35 convenience-store workers killed in 2006, a 17% drop from 2005.

More common are assaults: 2,750 workers at food-service and drinking places suffered non-fatal assaults from 2003 through 2006.

“Violent crime will only increase in fast food,” says Rosemary Erickson, president of Athena Research, a security researcher.

According to the most current numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly two million additional jobs will be created in the fast food industry in the next ten years, while five million employees will be replaced. 

• The average food service worker stays in their job a little more than a year. 

• There is a 76% separation rate in Food Services, compared to 40% across all industries.  Separations include both those employees who quit, and those that are fired.

• The “quit” rate in fast food is 56%. 

• According to the Employee Hold’em 2006 National Benchmark, more hospitality/food service employees are “Reluctant” (45% are reluctant to leave and reluctant to work hard) than are “Fully Engaged (36% are going the extra mile for customers). 

Looks like another nail in the coffin for the graveyard shift…