Would you consider this worrysome?

[dr.girlfriend]

Also, keep in mind that a close worker having breast cancer is probably motivating for the others to do self-exams, get mammograms, etc. You may be seeing the effects of early diagnosis rather than an increased risk.

[timorousbeastie]

Speaking as both a cancer researcher and a cancer survivor, this wouldn't worry me in the least. I work with actual, 100% proven carcinogens (not just CA's idea of a carcinogen) on a daily basis, in a lab with no windows, for very long hours; no one I know at work has gotten cancer yet (well, except for me, but that was before I started working there, so it's obviously unrelated). Is it possible that someone I work with will eventually get cancer because of what we are exposed to? Yes, but it probably wouldn't happen for a very long time. It takes a loooong time to go from the first mutation from exposure to the initiator/promoter to get to a detectable cancer. There is some correlation between lack of vit. D and cancer, but correlation does not equal causation, and 10 minutes of sun exposure a day is (usually) enough to get vit. D levels where they need to be; that's easy enough to do even if you are trapped inside an office all day (or just take a supplement). And, of course, there is a link between obesity and cancer, but again, even if you are sedentary at work, that doesn't mean you can't be active outside of work.



Sometimes clusters of cancer happen; it doesn't always mean they are related. For example, I went to a very small high school; I and 3 other classmates all got blood cancers within 5 years or so of each other. Statistically speaking, it was odd; it doesn't mean, however, that we can necessarily blame it on the school. Sometimes bad things just happen. And I agree with the pp that greater awareness due to the other diagnoses could lead to increased early detection in the coworkers.



In your coworkers' cases, rather than office exposure, it's far more likely that age, family history, or obesity (and again, you can't really blame that on work), or just random bad luck are the actual cause of their cancers.