Read Online A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr - Free Book Online

Woburn, was even less happy with Reverend Young’s activities. “For anyone with little or no authority to give the impression that there is a major health crisis within the confines of the city, without factual evidence to back up their statements, is totally irresponsible,” announced the mayor at a city council meeting. Reverend Young heard that the mayor, in private conversation, was furious about the “panic” and “hysteria” created by reports of high cancer rates. The chamber of commerce warned publicly about declining property values and other serious economic effects. “Businesses may decide not to expand, or even to move out of the area,” one speaker told the chamber. “Industrial land may not be sold because of the problem. Property values may be down.” The chamber’s vice-president foresaw “an exodus of business” and said, “We’ve got to try to head that off.”
    That December the Centers for Disease Control formally requested permission from the city to launch an investigation into the possible leukemia cluster. With help from the Massachusetts Department of Health, an epidemiologist from Atlanta began designing a study for Woburn. Trained researchers from the department of health would be sent to the homes of the twelve families with leukemic children and conduct in-depth interviews on a wide range of subjects. The researchers would also interview twenty-four other Woburn families that had been selected as controls, matched by age and sex with the leukemic families. The study, said the experts, would take a year to complete.
    Reverend Young worried that those in authority would try to minimize or even suppress the results of the investigation. On Sunday mornings, from the pulpit at Trinity Episcopal, he began to speakabout environmental contamination in Woburn and the high incidence of leukemia. He seized every opportunity to speak in public on the issue, and granted interviews to any reporter who asked. To a New York Times reporter, he said, “I set out to prove [Anne] wrong, that cancer and leukemia don’t run in neighborhoods, but she was right.” When Senator Edward Kennedy’s office invited both him and Anne to testify in Washington before the Senate Committee on Public Works and the Environment, he immediately accepted. Anne told the minister she would not go. She had to take care of Jimmy. Young insisted. “You must do this for Jimmy,” he told her.
    So Anne went. She spoke only briefly, but her words became the headline in The Boston Globe ’s story the next day. “We fear for our children, and we fear for their children,” she said. “The neighborhood lives in fear.”

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    Donna Robbins got a visit from two researchers working on the CDC investigation one evening in July 1980, seven months after John Truman’s call to Clark Heath. The researchers asked Donna about the medical histories of everyone in the family, how often they had been exposed to X rays, how many pregnancies and miscarriages she’d had. They asked about her and her ex-husband’s jobs, their ethnic and religious backgrounds, their church and community activities, their eating habits, hobbies, and household pets. Did she keep a garden? Had she or her sons ever fished or waded in Woburn lakes and streams? Had she ever smoked cigarettes? Painted her apartment? Used hair spray or hair dye? Traveled outside Woburn? The entire process took nearly two hours. Donna answered as best she could. After the researchers left, she realized that they had never asked her about the tap water.
    A few weeks later, Donna got a call from the Woburn lawyer who had handled her divorce, the same lawyer who’d referred her to Reed & Mulligan about Robbie’s hip operation. The lawyer said he’d been following events in the newspaper. He asked Donna if she’d thought about a lawsuit, perhaps against the city. Donna said the idea had not occurred to her. “Well,” said the lawyer, “you might call Joe Mulligan and see what he