The tumors, all benign, are three different types, Mass General Brigham Newton-Wellesley Hospital outside Boston said. The hospital said an investigation found no environmental risk.

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.

  • truthfultemporarily@feddit.orgEnglish
    265·
    16 days ago

    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?

    • 1984English
      22·
      16 days ago

      Yeah but you dont ignore something like this still. Should be looked into.

      • 1024_Kibibytes@lemm.eeEnglish
        14·
        16 days ago

        Exactly. Coincidence does not necessarily equal causation, but it does suggest a possible link that should be investigated.

    • zephorah@lemm.eeEnglish
      9·
      16 days ago

      This cannot be emphasized enough. Back in the 90s data came out regarding breast implants and autoimmune disorders. There was a Frontline on this topic but I’ve been unable to track it down, probably due to age.

      Essentially, silicone breast implant recipients were occasionally suing after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. The correlation had people thinking there was causation, however, when you sliced the data to look at rates of autoimmune among the general population of women and the rates of autoimmune among women who’ve received silicone breast implants there was no statistical difference between the two.

      Two unrelated things were happening at the same time.

    • modeler@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      16 days 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’.