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5 nurses who work on the same floor at Massachusetts hospital have brain tumors (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Summary

Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts is investigating after five nurses from its fifth-floor maternity unit were diagnosed with benign brain tumors. The tumors, all benign, are three different types, the hospital said. A total of 11 staff reported health concerns.

The hospital, in collaboration with government agencies, found no environmental risk after testing possible sources like water, masks, and nearby medical treatments.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association disputes the hospital’s findings, citing limited nurse interviews and incomplete testing. The union is conducting an independent investigation.

Federal agencies have not commented. The American Cancer Society notes that such clusters require specific criteria to indicate a common cause.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

I just want to point out that even extremely unlikely scenarios happen all the time, given how many possible "tries" there are. People win the lottery, survive falling out of the sky, etc.

How many hospital floors are there in the world?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

In the UK there were a number of cancer clusters of rare cancers and then the speculation started. One idea was that all the cases were near electric substations, but again, there are a lot of people who live or work near those. In the end, I think it was decided it was just chance.

One way of visualising this that they showed on the program was to scatter a handful of M&Ms or dried beans or similar on a tabletop. When you scatter, there's a very high probability that several end up very close together just by chance - and there we have our cancer 'cluster'.

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