Male Office Mates Developed Breast Cancer
June 4 -- Three men working in one Albuquerque office say the odds of winning the Powerball lottery two days in a row are better than what happened to them: they each have male breast cancer.
Only 1,400 men are diagnosed with the disease each year in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. For every man who is diagnosed, there are more than 100 women found to have breast cancer.
Which is why it seemed so odd when Arthur Slater and James Montano, both of whom worked in the same office for the Bernalillo County assessor's office in Albuquerque, developed breast cancer. They say a toxic workplace was to blame, and have filed suit against their employer.
"Since the day when we moved into that office, it smelled of a motor burnt out, all the time," said Slater on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.
Slater says the workers were evacuated from their office quite often. "They weren't just drills," said Slater. "The fire department came. We spent more time outside than we did inside."
Slater and Montano's attorney, Sam Bregman, said a third male employee also has breast cancer, but he has chosen to remain anonymous thus far.
Laundry List of Concerns
The suit lists 15 environmental concerns that the city and county never fully addressed, including excessive levels of carbon monoxide and dioxide, high levels of fiberglass and mold and a problem with electromagnetic fields.
The attorney points out that the electrical vault which supplied the power for the entire 11-story building was located in the basement, directly across the hall from the assessor's office, Bregman said. The assessor's office is now in a different building, but it was located in the basement of the other building from 1995 to 1998.
Some of the equipment was also in the office itself, Montano said. And the basement also contained the sewer line, the computer main frame, the heating and cooling systems and the telephone systems.
Slater said he knows of 10 other people who have had forms of cancer in the office. Four have died, and he said he has also heard about miscarriages.
