Deadlines are deadly

New research has confirmed the union view that stress resulting from long working hours and short deadlines can cause heart attacks.

Staff working hard to get a task done on time were six times more likely to have a heart attack in the next 24 hours than their co-workers, according to the Swedish study of 3,500 people.

Researchers found that high demands, competition and conflict in the workplace added to heart attack risk.

"Work-related stressful life events and the risk of myocardial infarction", Jette Möller and others, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, vol 59, pp 23-30, 2005