Home'scool Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 I work in an office with 4 other people. I started about 2 years ago. It is a great job, nice people, good pay, blah blah blah. The only thing is this ...... my boss, who started 6 months ago, was just diagnosed with breast cancer 2 weeks ago. Now my co-worker was diagnosed with an breast abnormality this week. My old boss, who was here for about 25 years and just retired, developed cancer while he was working here, as did the previous clerical worker. So that means, in a small office, right now there are two out of four of us diagnosed with cancer, and two others who worked here developed cancer. It is an old building. It was a junior high school that was converted about 10 years ago into the Town Hall. In total there are about 100 people who work in the building and I have not heard a lot about cancer in general. It just seems to hit our department hard. Would you be concerned and look for another job? Or would you chalk it up to a statistical anomaly? Ironically enough, i work for the Board of Health! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 (edited) No, I would not be concerned. 38.5 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with some kind of cancer during their lifetime. This seems to be within statistical fluctuations; four is a very small sample size. https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/all.html Edited January 19, 2018 by regentrude 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 Are you in the basement of the building? Some old buildings do have issues. My dh worked in a basement that was later condemned and all the workers relocated. It may not be the cause of all the cancer in these cases, I just wanted to throw that out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 I was going to post the same statistics as regentrude. There is no way that 6 months in the office caused breast cancer in your boss. I do understand the feeling though. During my last pregnancy it seemed that every other pregnant woman I knew developed pre-eclampsia and serious complications. I was anxious even though I knew my own statistical chances of developing pre-eclampsia or other issues hadn't gone up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theelfqueen Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 My cousin's wife died of cancer, then a few years later my cousin and several years later their son. It is beyond heartbreaking and bizarre but they all had different cancers and the doctors are pretty convinced it was just a horrible fluke nor some shared causality. (For the record, their other child seems to be fine and is a nurse now) ... so I'm leaning toward anomalous if there isn't an overall unusual number in the building ( or in the former student population) Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 I don't believe breast cancer is linked to air quality, is it? If it were other types of cancer (esp lung), I'd be concerned and would probably get the air tested on my own (assuming I found a way to do that similar to water tests) just for the peace of mind. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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