The USEPA Workgroup reviewing the evidence at Woburn indicated that "the Wells G and H contamination should be viewed more broadly than one of TCE in the drinking water." (EPA, 1988) Indeed, a chemical analysis of the soil and water in the area of Wells G and H revealed a wide range of contaminants including toxic metals, and provided uncertainty regarding both the identity and concentration of contaminants present during the period of exposure.
[Source: http://www.civilaction.org/faq.html]The ATSDR report on TCE states that "From available information on animals, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that...drinking water containing 1 ppm trichlorothylene every day over a lifetime may place as many as 3 persons in a population of 10,000 (or 3,200 persons in a population of 10,000,000) at risk of developing cancer. It should be noted that these risk levels for humans are plausible upper-limit estimates based on information obtained from animal studies. Actual risk levels are unlikely to be higher and may be lower." The families in Woburn were not exposed to these levels of TCE from the contamination of Wells G and H, and the claimed contamination did not last for the 70-year "lifetime" contemplated in the EPA estimate. Moreover, the plaintiffs do not claim that Grace is reponsible for TCE that reached the families in those levels from other sources (such as the air or other water sources.)
In a 1997 unpublished review, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) expressed the opinion that exposure during pregnancy to water from Wells G and H appeared to contribute to an increase in childhood leukemia in Woburn in the 1970s and early 1980s. However, the MDPH was careful not to attribute the increased incidence of leukemia to any particular contaminant. (MDPH, 1997) The American Cancer Society reports that the form of childhood leukemia found in most of the Woburn children, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, has not been linked to chemical exposure, including chemical contamination of groundwater.
[Source: http://www.civilaction.org/faq.htm]