Tanneries were widespread in Woburn and existed for many years, so much so that the Woburn High School mascot is the "Tanner." The chemicals used for tanning and polishing leather included chromium salts and benzene, both of which are known human carcinogens.

The description of Woburn's history is from the Public Broadcasting System radio show, "Living on Earth," which did a special show on Woburn when the movie "A Civil Action" was released in 1999.

Early industry brought toxic chemicals into Woburn. Lead-arsenate pesticides were manufactured here over 100 years ago, and subsequent chemical manufacturing included specialty chemicals associated with the tanning industry.

Pesticides were also used in the Greenhouse Industry

The wastes from these industries were dumped legally and illegally around the city. This is probably the source of the "Woburn odor," which residents complained about for years.

The area of the Aberjona River in East Woburn has long been an area both of rich wetlands and industrial activity. In 1964, to meet the need for more drinking water for the growing Woburn population, Wells G and H were dug in the area indicated on the aerial photograph. The photo also indicates the location of chemically based industries, W.R. Grace Cryovac Division and Unifirst, a uniform dry cleaning company. In the 1960s and 1970s, Wells G and H were put on line and taken off depending on the needs of the town and the abundance of water in other wells.

During this time, parents of children with leukemia began to raise the question of causation, based on the proximity of several cases near Wells G and H. They demanded investigation of the causes of the childhood leukemia.

An Engineer hired by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was able to estimate how much water from Wells G & H was distributed throughout the Woburn water system at various times during the past two decades.

Times reporter Charlie Ryan discusses the discovery and extent of the contamination found in the area of Wells G and H.

Anne Anderson, by 1970 a concerned resident of Woburn, notes that many residents were suspicious of the city water long before any official health studies were done. Only a couple years later, in 1972, Anne's son Jimmy was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). She soon realized that he was not alone.

Anne Anderson recalled the realization that there might be a childhood leukemia cluster in a small section of East Woburn where she and Jimmy lived. Several of the other children lived so close together that they could practically see each other's houses. Something wasn't right - there were too many kids in too small an area with the same rare disease. In Anne Anderson's mind, there were only two things the children in her neighborhood shared: the air and the water. And everyone knew the water was bad.

Anne Anderson convinced Jimmy's doctor, Dr. John Truman, that there was something wrong in the Woburn environment. Dr. Truman, a physician treating several of the cases from East Woburn at Massachusetts General Hospital, called the Centers for Disease Control and requested an investigation.

In 1979, Wells G and H were tested for volatile organic compounds amid reports of illegal dumping. These tests revealed high levels of trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchlorethylene (PCE), both of which were suspected of causing cancer at that time. Because the levels were above the federal maximum contaminant levels at the time, the wells were shut off.

Chemicals from the tanning industry, the pesticide industry, and small manufacturing companies like W.R. Grace seeped through groundwater and traveled to the aquifer that fed drinking water wells such as Wells G and H in East Woburn. The contamination probably existed for many years, beginning in the early 1900s, but became more prominent after the 1950s. This led to many complaints about the quality of the drinking water. The video clip shows a hydrologic model of how chemicals, specifically trichloroethylene (TCE) moved into the area of Wells G and H.

In 1980, the Department of Public Health established a Cancer Registry to monitor cancer incidence in Woburn and other towns. Pictured here is Dr. Richard Clapp, the Registry's first director. Data from the Cancer Registry has vastly improved surveillance of diseases

In December 1979, Milt Kotelchuck of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) completed the Woburn Health Data Analysis. The CDC and DPH case-control study involved interviewing parents about their children's health, their family history, the use of chemicals around the home, family pets which may have had leukemia, the parents' occupations, whether they drank bottled or town water, etc. The results were released in 1981, shortly after Jimmy Anderson died from ALL.

In the early 1980s, Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy invited Anne Anderson and other Woburn parents and activists including the Reverend Bruce Young to Washington, D.C. They told their stories to lawmakers considering legislation to clean up the nation's worst toxic dumps. President Ronald Reagan's proposals to downsize government and a massive budget deficit loomed in the background. But the testimony of Woburn parents and panic-stricken residents of Love Canal, NY put a human face on the need for a national cleanup. Superfund, the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) became a law in 1980 and was later funded with 9 billion dollars.

In 1982, Rev. Bruce Young and Anne Anderson approached staff at the Harvard School of Public Health and asked for assistance in some kind of further health study. Dr. Marvin Zelen and others responded and planned a cross-sectional interview study to see if childhood leukemia, birth defects, and other childhood illnesses were associated with exposure to water from Wells G and H. A major volunteer effort was mobilized and over 5,000 households were contacted and queried about their health.

Additional cases of leukemia occurred in Woburn children up until 1986. Woburn stood out throughout Massachusetts for its high childhood leukemia incidence, although the number of cases began to dwindle by the mid-1980s.

When the results were presented in 1984, the first link to the wells was made in a scientific study. At about the same time, a lawsuit against W.R. Grace, Beatrice Foods, and Unifirst was filed by Anne Anderson and seven other plaintiffs. The defendants denied that they had caused the pollution of the wells and that the contaminants, primarily TCE, were responsible for the leukemia cases.

Remediation of the Superfund sites began, with the intention of making the water in Wells G and H of potable quality at some time as far as 50 years in the future.

The lawsuit and subsequent appeals ended in 1989, with a commitment on the part of the responsible parties to contribute to the costs of remediation.

The Department of Public Health, with assistance from the CDC, organized a national advisory panel to recommend further studies.
A birth outcomes study and a leukemia follow-up study, termed the Woburn Environmental and Birth Study (WEBS) were recommended. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) provided funds for both, and these began in 1988-1989.

The Woburn Environment and Birth Study was released in 1993, with generally negative results. Citizens critiqued it based on the timing of the contamination and the study period. The Woburn childhood leukemia follow-up study was presented publicly in June 1996. Here, Suzanne Condon, Director of the Bureau of Environmental Health Assessment of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, introduces the results which showed a link between pre-natal exposure to water from Wells G and H and risk of childhood leukemia.

The lawsuit and subsequent appeals ended in 1989, with a commitment on the part of the responsible parties to contribute to the costs of remediation.

Also during this time remediation of the Woburn environment continued with help from a 1991 EPA $69.5 million settlement naming five responsible parties for cleanup. The leukemia rate returned to normal for Woburn as a whole. The citizens group FACE no longer functioned, although individual parents continued to speak at public events such as the panel following the premiere of the movie "A Civil Action."

In 1995, Jonathan Harr published the best-selling book A Civil Action, which documented the story of the trial. Later, in 1998, the movie starring John Travolta was released.

In 1997, Massachusetts DPH released its case-control study results, which were later published in 2002 in the journal The Science of the Total Environment.