[jeff605Participant]

Hallo All. I live in a small market town -pop. approx 30000. – in Leics. In the course of attending consultant meetings I have gradually met 8 ( and there is at least one more ) other patients who worked with me on the maintenance team in a large factory, all suffering from Myeloma. There may be others I don’t know about attending other clinics, or who worked in other departments or not directly employed by the company – contractors for example – who live in other areas. Now, Myeloma is supposed to be a rare cancer. So, can an incidence such as this really be put down to a statistical ” blip “. I would think it would be very difficult to establish a common cause, or similar previous exposure in the past, we come from various racial and regional backgrounds. Interesting though.Jeff 605

[duskParticipant]

Hi Jeff

This ‘cluster’ of incidences of myeloma in a small area is interesting.  But the geographical picture would be quite complex to unravel and so far no definitive links between jobs / work and the development of myeloma have been established. Some work points to radiation exposure and radiation is all around us at low levels as well as used quite frequently for clinical purpose.

Malignancies are often about the interaction in particular individuals between their genes and the environment (what you are exposed to and ingest). Very few people are static all their lives and live in one place. Cancers can take around 20 years from a ‘change in genes’ to develop into a detectable growth- of course this differe from individual to individual.   So although your observation is interesting it might be a co-incidental finding. I would raise it with your consultants and see what they say.

Dusk.

[dickbParticipant]

Hi Jeff,

You don’t happen to live in Melton do you?

[jeff605Participant]

Hi, Dick, Yes I do, why? Dusk, I do understand what you are saying, I still think it’s an interesting cluster, though Jeff

[dickbParticipant]

Hi Jeff,

I had a good reason to ask as I went to the upper school and lived in and around Melton for 14 out of 23 years before moving to Leicester, So that makes 10 of us with a link to Melton. As they’re are supposed to be about 3,500 new cases a year and possibly 20,000 sufferers in the country at any one time than the ratio in a town the size of Melton compared to an overall population of 61,000,000 makes interesting reading. There other factors to consider than just place of work. These include the fact that Radon may be prevelent in Melton – this has to be checked. If you have lived in the same house for a long time then maybe you ought to have it checked for Radon. The other thing is that Dalby Airfield use to be a Thor ICBM base in the early sixties. Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with that one but I stress there is no proof or data I know of saying there was a nuclear accident or the land is contaminated.

Now, as you say the other 8 work in the maintenance department of the company, is it a company based on Mill Street?

As for Germany, Myeloma is seen as a job related illness by the German occupational health agency but I undersatnd in the UK the criteria is far more restricted with things like Asbestosis and White finger being seen as a job related illness. So proving that you contracted MM from your employment may not actually do you any good.

[tonyfParticipant]

Hiya Jeff and Richard.
Jeff what you have found is so interesting, there must be a link of some description, especially as Dick was in the same place at the same time.
Well worth pursuing that one!
Good bit of research ther.
Regards
Tony F

[dickbParticipant]

Morning,

Did some basic maths based on the figures I gave in my last post. If I still remember how to use a calculator than the chances of having MM in Melton is an incidence of 0.00033, for the population in general it is 0.000328. That’s not really a big difference. By the way I did badly at maths at the Upper School – like a lot of us there at the time.

[jeff605Participant]

Dick, I haven’t checked your calculations and don’t know what criteria you used. I started this thread as interesting, due to the affected group all working in the same place , exposed to the same chemicals, etc, including radio active sources. I am quite aware the chances of determining which, if any, items have caused Myeloma, is remote, if not impossible, especially as what causes Myeloma to strike is supposition at present, as far as I know. However, I still think that this group – and remember there may be more that I don’t know about – is a bit too much of a coincidence. As I said, interesting, even if not much can come from it.I did raise this with one of the consultants, and raised mild interest !! I would add the ethos of the firm involved is such it would never knowingly put the health of it’s workers at risk . Jeff

[dickbParticipant]

Hi Jeff,

My calculation was just a simple dividing the number of affected people into the known figure for the population: 10 / 30,000 and 20,000/61,000,000.

Having grown up and lived in Melton, I know a bit about the large employers in the town and I don’t believe there is any that has a bad reputation for health and safety or would put the welfare of its employees or the town at risk. The fact you all work for the same company is coincidence but other factors have to be considered. Perhaps you ought to approach Leicester University and see if they are prepared to do some research into it, mike make an interesting thesis for anyone doing a doctorate.

[dickbParticipant]

Hi Jeff,

My calculation was just a simple dividing the number of affected people into the known figure for the population: 10 / 30,000 and 20,000/61,000,000.

Having grown up and lived in Melton, I know a bit about the large employers in the town and I don’t believe there is any that has a bad reputation for health and safety or would put the welfare of its employees or the town at risk. The fact you all work for the same company is coincidence but other factors have to be considered. Perhaps you ought to approach Leicester University and see if they are prepared to do some research into it, might make an interesting thesis for anyone doing a doctorate.

[jeff605Participant]

Hi again, What I will do is see if I can get a better idea of any other employees of the company involved such as production workers who have Myeloma, where they worked, etc., and then decide whether to pass the information on or not, will take some time as I shall have to do it on an informal basis- incidentely, I have met other Myeloma suffers at the clinic from Melton who did not work at the company involved Jeff

[PerkymiteParticipant]

Although I have only met one other person on here, with myeloma, from Somerset. I was told in 2009 that Somerset had a high incidence of Myeloma – unfortunately I cannot remember for the life of me where that came from. However, talking to my Doctor the other day he said he had 3 Myeloma suffers on his book. It is said that most Doctors may not see one Myeloma patient in their life time so it does rather support the case!

Kindest regards – vasbyte

David

• This reply was modified 10 years, 8 months ago by  Perkymite.

[tonyfParticipant]

Just to add to this thread, I attended a day clinic today for a penidronate infusion at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. As one does I got talking to other patients, there were two folk who have lived all of their lives in Melton Mowbray and both have myeloma. Neither have spoken to anyone and were unaware of the high myeloma incidence in Melton.
Regards
Tony F

[dickbParticipant]

Hi Tony, just out of interest, how old would you say the other patients were? Both Jeff and I are of working age and with Jeff having worked with 8 others in the same factory, it does strike me that in Melton it isn’t an old people’s illness as it’s generally supposed to be. Where are Holmes and Watson when you need them?

[jeff605Participant]

Hi, Dick and Tony, I’m 75, and retired early many years ago. Most of my workmates with Myeloma would be between 65ish and 70ish or thereabouts.So although not a young group, we are comtemparies in processes and substances exposed too. Jeff

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