Work-related stress may cause cancer in men

A link between work-related stress and cancer was observed in men, who had been exposed to it for 15 to 30 years or more.

A link about an increased likelihood of lung, colon, rectal and stomach cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma was found in men who were exposed to prolonged work-related stress, according to the study published in journal of Preventive Medicine.

The researchers at INRS and Universite de Montreal in Canada conducted the study to see if there was any link between cancer and work-related stress perceived by men throughout their working life.

A link between work-related stress and cancer was not found in participants who had held stressful jobs for less than 15 years.

Significant links to five of the eleven common cancers in men considered in the study were revealed.

On average, the study participants had held four jobs, with some holding up to a dozen or more during their working lifetime.

The most stressful jobs included firefighter, industrial engineer, aerospace engineer, mechanic foreman, and vehicle and railway-equipment repair worker and for the same individual, stress varied depending on the job held.

The study also shows that perceived stress is not limited to high work load and time constraints.

‘One of the biggest flaws in previous cancer studies is that none of them assessed work-related stress over a full working lifetime, making it impossible to determine how the duration of exposure to work-related stress affects cancer development,’ the authors explained.

‘Our study shows the importance of measuring stress at different points in an individual’s working life,’ the authors noted.

Customer service, sales commissions, responsibilities, the participant’s anxious temperament, job insecurity, financial problems, challenging or dangerous working conditions, employee supervision, interpersonal conflict and a difficult commute were all sources of stress listed by the participants.