One only needs to go into a Central Office to know how at risk you are for any number of toxic chemicals. The more shocking part of this is that there aren't more studies that link cancer among telecom engineers that work closely in Central Offices and around legacy telecom infrastructure.

Having been a former lineman at PacBell (yes, I'm old), I can tell you that there should be no surprise when you're working in old buildings, with old legacy systems, in a building with zero windows.