SPH to Study Woburn Toxic Problem

The School of Public Health (SPH) announced yesterday that it will join a local environmental group next month in launching an extensive survey of 35,000 residents of Woburn, Mass., in the nation's first comprehensive city-wide survey of the possible links between toxic waste contamination and community health.

Local and national attention was focused on Woburn last year when an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report named the town as having one of the ten worst toxic waste problems in the nation.

In response to the 120-year-old toxic waste contamination, East Woburn citizens--who are particularly concerned about several children who have developed acute leukemia, liver cancers and other diseases-established an action organization "For a Cleaner Environmental" (FACE).

Members of the group will carry out a 10,000-household survey, designed by the faculty of the Department of Biostatistics at the SPH in conjunction with FACE. The 15-minute telephone survey, the product of eight months of collaboration, is designed to yield a health map of the community that correlates patterns of illness with specific geographic locations, Dr. Alfred Gellhorn, visiting professor of Health Policy and Management said yesterday.

In addition to cancers, the survey will monitor a variety of acute and chronic disorders, including diseases of the reproductive and nervous systems.

If a pollutant-health link exists, the study will provide data necessary to the planning of effective interventions. In addition, the survey serves as a model of how a community and an academic institution should work together on a health problem, Gellhorn said.

As information is generated, FACE will develop educational programs to acquaint people with the scope of the problem and to assist them in finding remedies. The group will also play a key role in coordinating the efforts to obtain state and federal support to abate the toxic waste contamination.