The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school district is trying to determine if 10 recent cancer diagnoses among teachers at Riverside Elementary are linked.

Staff and students at the Maple Ridge school returned to class this week to learn that teacher Lou-Anne Mansfield had died of brain cancer over the holidays. The 61-year-old primary teacher was the 10th staff member to be diagnosed with some form of cancer since 2000.

"When staff started to realize that there were quite a few people who had taught at the school that had cancer, they were concerned," Drusilla Wilson, president of the Maple Ridge Teachers Association, said yesterday.

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The union began to push the school district for an investigation.

A few weeks ago, the union met with district staff and Fraser Health specialist Dr. Goran Krstic to discuss beginning a study to determine if the cases could be linked to environment. The school, which was built in the late 1980s, has had problems with mould and poor air quality.

"We were asked to participate in a meeting to discuss the situation. At the meeting, Dr. Krstic was invited to prepare the terms of reference for the study," said Fraser Health spokeswoman Carolyn Warner.

The B.C. Cancer Research Centre will also be involved, said school district spokesman Seamus Nesling.

"From our perspective, this is purely precautionary," he said. "All the tests we've done in the past show no issues. Nothing has ever come up that would suggest a health risk."

Teacher Jodie Nagy was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in August 2006, a year after leaving Riverside to teach at another school. The disease has been in remission for close to one year.

"You might have one or two people in a large workplace, but when it's 10 people, that gets a little scary," Nagy said. "The thought of so many children going to the school over the years, not to mention staff. It's definitely worth investigating."

Parent John Mainer, who has three children at Riverside, said he had heard about the cancer cases, but after doing some research was less concerned.

"Every random sample will generate clusters," he said. "The types of cancer these teachers have are all different, so I don't really see a pattern . . . I think the study is a good idea because we want the facts. People stop listening when they hear the word cancer and it's easy to overreact."

Riverside principal Tanya Dailey said more investigation needs to be done to determine if the diagnoses are linked to each other or the environment.

"We don't have the facts, so until then, we can't say whether this is a coincidence or not."

The B.C. Cancer Agency predicts that 20,849 B.C. residents will be diagnosed with cancer in 2008.

gluymes@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Province 2008