Government funding was approved today for a study into whether working for IBM disproportionately increases your risk for cancer.

Federal scientists will have money to proceed with a monumental study of cancer rates among 28,000 IBM-Endicott employees that will advance science about illness and chemical exposure, U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey said Thursday.

Hinchey, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said he has secured funding necessary for the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health to begin the $3.2 million study in the next fiscal year, which begins in October.

I’ve heard it said before that it is statistically accurate to state that working for IBM causes cancer. Assuming this is true, the real question would be to compare it with other companies in a variety of industries (like Boeing, Ford or Sears who have all been around long enough to have had employees for a generation). If IBM is worse off that those, I could see there being some real legal liability coming from the findings here (which are many years off).

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