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.
This is terrifying.
Especially since this is the maternity ward, where young moms and babies exist. And we have no idea how widespread it is, what’s causing it, if mothers/babies are affected, how this affects people in their older ages, anything.
Test the ice machine.
I’ve filled up at more than one ice machine in a hospital where the bottom of the cup tasted metallic. A truly awful experience but a pattern of events I can draw a straight line through.
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?
Yeah but you dont ignore something like this still. Should be looked into.
Exactly. Coincidence does not necessarily equal causation, but it does suggest a possible link that should be investigated.
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.
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’.
I wonder how many people have benign tumors and never figure it out. Maybe they just have easy access to the mri machine.
I’m not a 5G nut and I trust modern technology for the most part.
But have they investigated how wireless signals might play a role in all this?
Sure wireless signals in most places is not dangerous but in a hospital setting with lots of different instruments everywhere using all kinds of equipment for all kinds of purposes some being run with wireless signals of all kinds, next to nearby systems running xray machines, MRI, CT Scan machines all concentrated in one general location … all that radiation and energy probably adds up. Not to mention all the medical chemicals and materials that are in a hospital.
It’s a hospital. They have sources of ionizing radiation in many locations for medical purposes.
Literal chemists, who actively use a wider variety of chemicals than you could possibly imagine and in close contact and use a massive variety of high field instruments, do not contract any sort of cancers whatsoever in higher rates than non chemists
Radiology people have to wear dosimeters. If they’re not getting flagged as exposed it’d be wild for anyone else in the hospital to have the effects.
Could be that the room that houses the X-ray machine is right next to the break room and insufficiently shielded or something like that.
Y’all really underestimate 1) the rules, regulations, and testing of modern radiation equipment and facilities. 2) how hospitals are built/organized especially for maternity wards which are relatively isolated from the rest of the hospital.
E: I would also note radiology/imaging is also separated from a lot of the hospital because of equipment like MRIs needing to be kept away from general equipment. A maternity ward and radiology sharing a break room or even being adjacent would be more than a little odd.
