While shift workers are needed to help our 24-7 world go ’round, an editorial written by Dr. Virginia Barbour, chief editor of the journal PLoS Medicine, warned that such work schedules can put a person at increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. She even argued that unhealthy eating habits on the job should be considered an occupational health hazard.

“We have a long-standing interest in publishing on the diseases and risk factors that cause the highest burden of disease,” Barbour told ABCNews.com.

“We would suggest that employers need to take unhealthy eating very seriously, to the extent that they consider that unhealthy foods are essentially environmental hazards and that they should consider what the implications are of exposing their employees to high levels of such hazards in the form of vending machines and fast-food restaurants.”

Shift Work Might Lead to Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity