40 NASA Workers On Same Floor Diagnosed With Cancer

[OhioChick]

Source: Newsnet5

April 7, 2008

CLEVELAND -- There are 40 cases of cancer among people who work in the same building at NASA Glenn Research Center.

Dozens of the employees fear that their cancer was triggered by years of working in the developmental engineering building, NewsChannel5 reported.

The union that represents hundreds of scientists and other workers said nearly half of the 100 employees on the third floor of the building have been diagnosed with favious forms of cancer in the past three to four years.

"What we've seen in the way of cancer here has just been astronomical on this third floor alone and we're just a little scared," said Dennis Pehotsky, of the Lewis Engineers and Scientists Association.

In a written statement, the head of safety at NASA Glenn said an employee survey shows cancer rates among workers are within the normal range, saying "Glenn management has no evidence of the number of cases that the union is reporting."

Union officials said they believe many employees feared reprisal for answering the survey honestly.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich represents NASA Glenn's district and his office is looking into the mattery.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/news/15817729/detail.html

[AX10]

1. K & R!

[hedgehog]

2. Weird - we had a cluster here - 5 people, 4 women and 1 man

who all developed breast cancer while working in the same office. No cause was ever found.

[mopinko]

3. same thing happened at amoco research center in illinois.

naperville. had a rash of people with brain tumors clustered on one floor. amoco's answer to this? they sold the building.

[WheelWalker]

4. Twilight Zone. k&r

[Fireweed247]

5. This is really wild

almost 50% cancer rate, I would quit that job so fast! Either that or buy life insurance so I could support my family.

[lostnfound]

19. Quit but be left with no medical insurance? Must be tough

to face that choice.

[rocktivity]

6. Forty percent? The "normal" cancer rate is supposed to be TWENTY per cent!

rocknation
:wow:

[BearSquirrel2]

22. Yes but ...

This sounds fishy. But you do have to look at things statistically. 20% (if this is correct) may be the average. But that doesn't meant that if you have more than 50% you automatically have a problem. It could be an outlier. Or, it could be prolonged radiation exposure.

[muryan]

7. thats a pretty bad work environment

i mean i work at a coffee shop and i thought i had it bad having to deal with caffeine addicts at 7 in the morning

[blayne]

8. Thank god Dennis is there!

If anybody can help. it will be Dennis.

[emilyg]

9. k/r

[pnorman]

10. What is "favious cancer"?

Google takes me to this thread, but is little help otherwise.

pnorman

[Voice for Peace]

11. It's a type of cancer you get at the mattery.

[pnorman]

13. From Merriam-Webster on-line:

"Main Entry: mat·tery
Pronunciation: primarystressmat-schwa-remacron
Function: adjective
: producing or containing pus or material resembling pus <eyes all mattery>

I don't think I'll bother to Google this any further; my eyes are becoming rheumy.

Good night to all.

pnorman

[pedo]

17. that made me lol

[CoffeeCat]

23. Ok, cancer isn't funny...

...but I'm sitting here laughing and typing at the same time.

It took me almost a full minute to type the above line, because I
was laughing so hard.

I love subtle humor.

Cancer isn't funny...but you certainly are.

[Duppers]

16. various, perhaps?

a dyslexic or sleep-deprived 'journalist'?

on edit: like duh.

[pnorman]

18. You must be an expert at crossword puzzles!

I tried a few spelling variants with Google, but that one never occurred to me! RATS!! My mind wasn't "supple" enough. But I can finally get to bed, with an untroubled mind! Thanks!

pnorman

[aaroh]

12. similar case to the employees contracting breast cancer in the abc tv network in australia

http://abcscience.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/22/2169576.htm

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[liberalla]

15. Junk Post - Not on Topic

You are posting this identical message in many threads.

Please go to General Discussion: Primaries and post your Obama message.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=132

[knitter4democracy]

20. Same as at my dad's work.

He is now retired, but he worked for thirty-some years at the MSU cyclotron. Dad was the engineer in charge of building whatever the physicists came up with, keeping it running, and managing the machine shop. He's gotten cancer twice right by his eye (he used to align the beamline visually, which they don't do anymore), the second time being closer to his tear duct. Oddly enough, they used the same radiation to treat the melanoma that caused it, but they burned out his tear duct (he'd warned them the machine was set too high, but no one listened to the old guy, not realizing he'd worked around radiation most of his adult life), so he had to have several procedures to reconstruct it.

Several of the physicists and engineers there have had cancer, a much higher figure than the average population. They work around radiation, and decades ago, they didn't know as much about it as they do now. One guy used to hold diamonds in the beam to erase their flaws with his hand--he got cancer there which spread, and he died. Dad remembers telling him not to hold it with his hand, that they didn't know how much exposure was too much, but the guy didn't listen.

Dad worked himself through college, and he started out at Lawrence Livermore. He still won't tell us what-all he worked on in the early 60s, but he can draw a mean diagram of a nuclear warhead. I'm sure if you looked into cancer rates at Livermore, you'd find them sky-high, too.

[Kelvin Mace]

21. I love this statement

At NASA, where safety is a top priority, employees said they are still waiting for answers.

*Cough*...Challenger....*cough*...Columbia...

Please note that the statement about "safety" was written by the reporter, who doesn't appear to be quoting anyone, just freelance shilling for NASA.

[knitter4democracy]

25. Safety's a top priority?! Um, no.

Excellence usually is (though too much falls through the cracks sometimes), trying to get a decent budget, but not safety. Not really.

[damntexdem]

24. Wow, what a coincidence!

;-)