Exposure to tetrachloroethylene via contaminated drinking water pipes in Massachusetts: a predictive model.

A computer model was developed to estimate exposure to tetrachloroethylene leaching from drinking-water pipes in Massachusetts between 1968 and 1979. The model was to be used for an epidemiologic study of cancer in five communities in Massachusetts. This model assigned a relative cumulative exposure score to each individual participant in the study, based on the geometry, size, age, and water flow through the water pipe that supplied a particular household and on the individual's duration of residence in that household. The results of modeling showed a wide range of exposure levels among the study participants. The epidemiologic study is described in the accompanying paper by Aschengrau et al.