Durant J L, Chen J, Hemond H F, Thilly W G
Center for Environmental Health Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139, USA.
Environ Health Perspect. 1995 Sep;103 Suppl 6(Suppl 6):93-8. doi: 10.1289/ehp.95103s693.
Between 1966 and 1986, the childhood leukemia rate in Woburn, Massachusetts, was 4-fold higher than the national average. A multidisciplinary research team from MIT, which is being supported by the NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program, has explored the possible importance of a temporal correlation between the period of elevated leukemia and a previously unrecognized mobilization of toxic metals from a waste disposal site in north Woburn. Residents of Woburn may have been exposed to arsenic (70 micrograms/l) and chromium (240 micrograms/l) at levels in excess of federal drinking water standards (50 micrograms/l for each metal) by consuming municipal groundwater contaminated with these metals. Research is currently underway a) to elucidate the mechanisms and the pathways by which these metals were transported from the waste disposal site to the drinking water supply; b) to determine the identity of the principal human cell mutagens in samples of aquifer materials collected from the site of the municipal supply wells; and c) to measure the extent of exposure and genetic change in residents who consumed the contaminated well water.
1966年至1986年间，马萨诸塞州沃本的儿童白血病发病率比全国平均水平高出4倍。由美国国立环境卫生科学研究所超级基金基础研究项目资助的麻省理工学院多学科研究团队，探讨了白血病发病率升高时期与沃本北部一个废物处理场先前未被认识到的有毒金属释放之间存在时间关联的潜在重要性。沃本居民通过饮用受这些金属污染的市政地下水，可能接触到了超过联邦饮用水标准（每种金属50微克/升）的砷（70微克/升）和铬（240微克/升）。目前正在进行的研究包括：a）阐明这些金属从废物处理场输送到饮用水供应系统的机制和途径；b）确定从市政供水井所在地采集的含水层材料样本中主要人类细胞诱变剂的身份；c）测量饮用受污染井水的居民的接触程度和基因变化情况。
