May 2008
Environmental Agents and Breast Cancer Risk in a Commercial Office Building in San Francisco
Our Challenge
- We were contacted by a commercial office building regarding concerns about cases of breast cancer in employees who were worried about indoor air.
Our Approach
We evaluated 14 years of historical environmental data, including indoor air and water quality data, collected annually.
- Examined volatile organic compounds, metals, pesticides, radon, PCBs, electromagnetic fields
- Estimated the expected number of breast cancer cases using available employee demographic data
- Compared incidence rate of breast cancer in employees to the incidence rate in the SF Bay Area
Our Findings
- An overview of the analysis and an informational course on breast cancer incidence and risk factors was presented to the concerned employees.
- Employees were found not to be at increased risk of developing breast cancer.