Childhood Leukemia Answers Sought

By CHARLES C. RYAN

WOBURN -- Long before he became the Paster of the Trinity Episcopal Church on Main Street in downtown Woburn, The Rev. Bruce Young had been concerned about leukemia in children.

"About sixteen years ago, I had my first exposure to it when the teen-aged son of one of my parishioners became ill with leukemia. He died. Usually, those who are going to die, die in the first year, though that was back when they didn't have the kinds of treatments they have now," he recalls.

"About the same time, my niece also died from leukemia," said Reverend Young-

Long before the toxic wastes were identified in north Woburn and the trichloroethylene was found in the two wells in East Woburn, Rev. Young was crusading for more information about leukemia in children.

He moved from Attleboro to Woburn and then, about 7 years ago, learned that one of his parishioners had leukemia, a boy of about 5. Because the boy needed regular treatment at Mass. General Hospital and because Rev. Young saw his duty as Minister to help, he became involved in bringing the boy in to be treated by Dr. John Truman.

Then, about five years ago, another parishioner's child was found to have leukemia and Rev. Young began to actively pursue its causes.

"We don't have a large parish. There aren't that many people, so when two cases of leukemia turned up, I became concerned.

In his trips to the Mass. General, Rev. Young recalls seeing a number of Woburn residents also coming in for treatment.

About five years ago he began pushing much harder for more information, questioning doctors, hospitals, public health officials, but he did not really receive much response.

Most of them would quickly check their records, and say there wasn't anything unusual going on," he remembers.

Over the years he continued to gather evidence, persisting in his efforts to determine if the number of leukemia cases in Woburn was unusual, if there was any common factor.

Then the news stories on toxic wastes in north Woburn and the contamination of the wells in East Woburn began appearing in the paper and he eventually decided to put in a letter to the editor seeking more information.

"It was only coincidental that the letter appeared around the time the story on arsenic did," he said.

Rev. Young is not fanatical about his position. He sits quietly in his office and carefully gathers information, waiting until each case has been confirmed before adding it to his growing list of children with leukemia. He does not want information on adult cases. He can only do so much, he explains. Nor, is Rev. Young making wild statements or accusations. He wants correct answers. The truth.

Now, he has identified a total of twelve cases in Woburn. Of those twelve, two live in west Woburn, two near the center, one in central square, one in north Woburn, and six in east Woburn, five of the six are clustered closely together in the Pine Street area of the city.

Many of those he has contacted feel the water in east Woburn has had something to do with the leukemia of their children. Rev. Young, however, is not willing to say it is the water. He wants more facts, though he does point to the high number of cases in east Woburn.

Ever since G and H wells were installed in east Woburn in the 1960s, they have been a source of complaints. Complaints about bad taste and bad smells.

Complaints about allergic reactions, stained laundry and corroded pipes.

Until this past May, however, when trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene and 1-l-trichloroethane were found in the wells, the water had always tested as safe.

The biggest problem is that those chemicals had never been tested for before.

They were not part of the required testing until this past year when the water in Woburn was tested shortly after a number of barrels of toxic wastes were discovered at the site of the proposed B&M train depot on Mishawum Road, about three-quarters of a mile north of the wells.

The wells were promptly closed and have remained closed since. Similar contaminants have been found in the wells of 22 other communities in the state.

At this point, however, state and federal experts can't say if there is any relationship to the chemicals found in the wells or in north Woburn and the number of cancer and leukemia deaths in the city.

Extensive tests would be needed to determine any connection.

The vigil has not been easy for Rev. Young. Over the years five of those twelve childhood leukemia victims have died.

But he is still searching for childhood leukemia victims. He would like, someday, to see a national cancer registry established so that all unusual incidents of leukemia could be examined and compared for common features. So that some answers could be found and perhaps, cures developed.