«Alarming data come to the attention of a trade union like ours, which has always been attentive not only to the economic-contractual valorisation of health workers, but also close to their health conditions and the protection of their psycho-physical serenity in the workplace.
In Europe, according to data from an accurate survey that began way back in 2012 and continues up to the present day, over 350,000 new cases of breast cancer have been reported, which have led to over 90,000 new deaths in recent years. The majority of breast cancers naturally affect women, for whom it is the leading cause of death among the cancers that afflict them.
In various European countries, the incidence of these cancers has clearly increased recently.
The more science and knowledge advances, the longer the list of professions that see breast cancer prevalence well above the average. The research “Working Women and Breast Cancer. The State of the Evidence” by the US National Breast Cancer Fund.
But that’s not all, because the report highlights how the risk of breast cancer among our nurses and midwives, compared to the general female population, has increased by as much as 50%. A calculated risk of 4 times higher among nursing professionals.
In addition to this risk, nurses must also consider the risk of handling drugs and cytotoxic substances. With the constant increase in the number of people with cancer, according to the WHO, there will be a further 70% increase in the number of new cases over the next two decades, consequently nursing staff will be required to treat an ever increasing number more growing than cancer patients, with chemotherapy, but nurses themselves, as women, as subjects at risk, are in the first places for the incidence of breast cancer.
Let us ask ourselves, then, why our nurses, midwives, our health workers, are so at risk. A legitimate question, the answer to which, unfortunately, does not come from our health authorities, but, as often happens, from accurate surveys of countries close to us.
In fact, for the first time in France, a direct link was recognized between night work and the risk of developing breast cancer for women.
So Antonio De Palma, National President of Nursing Up.
“This was established at the end of March by the National Council of the French Medical Association, which examined the case of a former nurse (now retired) from the hospital in Sarreguemines, a small transalpine town located on the border with Germany.
During her 28 years in cardiology and gynecology, 61-year-old nurse Martine (not her real name) worked a total of 873 night shifts. In 2009, at the age of 48, she asked and was granted by the hospital management to work only during the day, shortly before discovering she was afflicted with breast cancer.
14 years later, the French Medical Council has established the direct link between the disease contracted by the nurse and the large number of night shifts performed during the service. Her cancer, in other words, can be counted as a disease contracted in the workplace. A historic ruling, thanks to which the woman will be able to ask for compensation from health insurance. Thing previously denied to two other colleagues of hers.
The contents of what is happening in transalpine land are alarming and at the same time pave the way for reflections that cannot be ignored.
Stress, caused by the heavy hours of night work, fatigue, with the consequent weakening of the immune system, in the context of a delicate and difficult task such as that of our nurses and midwives, also subjected to the constant risk of physical and psychological aggression (they are the absolute category most victims of violence), with the consequent anxiety-inducing situation that derives from it, can certainly represent one of the triggering causes of the increase in tumors in our professionals.
At this point, we wonder how our Ministry of Health intends to react in the face of a survey of this kind, which, although carried out in a health context far from ours, cannot be ignored, given that the data on breast cancer concern even our health workers.
We are facing a report that deserves the utmost attention and let’s not forget it, unions like ours have been fighting for years for the recognition of the nursing and midwifery profession among the strenuous activities, including both our nurses and our midwives.
It is article 1 of Legislative Decree 67/2011, let us remember, that establishes what are the so-called strenuous jobs, i.e. those activities that require a particularly high physical and mental commitment to justify, among other things, an earlier access to pension treatment than to other categories of workers.
In these provisions, nurses are included only in a residual way among the generality of night workers, and in the end, those who actually benefit from these provisions are few, because the strenuous activity is recognized only in cases where the employees serve for at least 6 hours of the night period and for a minimum of 78 nights each year.
Those jobs in which the employment in the 24:00-05:00 range is only 3 hours, but for a period of work equal to the entire working year, are also considered as strenuous.
But if in France, ultimately, night work and the stress that derives from it, are starting to be considered, in an epochal turning point, as a risk factor for breast cancer, thus also including nurses and midwives due to the distortion of circadian rhythms and hormonal structures, influenced as they are, by work shifts that impact on the sleep-wake rhythm, however, we are still decidedly behind.
Certainly, unions like ours will have to raise their shields again and make their voices heard to ask for definitive light to be shed on the risks associated with carrying out their work at night, openly asking to know the data concerning all Italian female workers , including those in health care, who at night, away from their families, fight to protect the health of the community, putting their own at risk, day after day», comments De Palma.
c.s.nursing up, s.zo.