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Catriona E. Rogers, ^1,2 Aoy V. Tomita, ^1,3 Philip R. Trowbridge, ^1,2 Jec-Kong Gone, ^1,4 Jia Chen, ^1,3 Peter Zeeb, ^1,2 Harold F. Hemond, ^1,2 William G. Thilly, ^1,3 Ilhan Olmez, ^1,4 and John L. Durant ⁵

¹ Center for Environmental Health Sciences
² Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory
³ Division of Toxicology and ⁴ Nuclear Reactor Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
⁵ Civil & Environmental Engineering Department, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 USA

Abstract
We hypothesized that residents of Woburn, Massachusetts, had been exposed to as much as 70 µg/l of arsenic (As) and 240 µg/l of chromium (Cr) in drinking water from municipal supply wells G and H. To test this hypothesis, we measured the concentrations of As and Cr in 82 hair samples donated by 56 Woburn residents. Thirty-six samples were cut between 1964 and 1979, the period during which wells G and H were in operation. The remainder were cut either before 1964 (1938-1963 ; n = 26) or after 1979 (1982-1994 ; n = 20) . Washed hair samples were analyzed by instrumental neutron activation. Exposure to the well water--measured as access--was estimated using well pumping records and a model of the Woburn water distribution system. Our results show that access to wells G and H water was not signficantly correlated (95% confidence interval) with As and Cr concentrations measured in the hair of Woburn residents, but As concentrations have declined significantly over the last half century. Linear regression of As concentrations (micrograms per gram) upon year of haircut and access to wells G and H water yielded a standard coefficient for year of -0.0074 ± 0.0017 (standard error ; p = 2.5 10 ^-5 ) and -0.12 ± 0.10 ( p = 0.22) for access. The r ² value for the model was 0.19. The geometric mean concentrations (geometric standard deviation) of As and Cr in the hair of residents who had access (i.e., relative access estimate >0) to wells G and H water ( n = 27) were 0.14 (2.6) and 2.29 (1.8) µg/g, respectively ; the geometric mean concentrations of As and Cr in all of the hair samples from residents who did not have access (1938-1994 ; n = 55) were 0.13 (3.0) and 2.19 (2.0) µg/g, respectively. Key words : arsenic, chromium, groundwater, human hair, Woburn, Massachusetts. Environ Health Perspect 105:1090-1097 (1997) .

Address correspondence to W.G. Thilly, Center for Environmental Health Sciences, E18-666, 50 Ames Street, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA.

The authors are deeply grateful to the residents of Woburn who donated their hair samples for use in our study. We are also indebted to Stephen Boudreault for advice on sample collection, Elfatih Eltahir for advice on statistical analysis, Paul Fricker for assistance with laboratory analysis, Daniel Byrd and Steven Lamm for providing literature references, and Enda Wang and Konstantin Krapko for translating articles. This research was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Basic Research Program (P42-ES04675) . C.R. and P.T. were supported by fellowships from the National Science Foundation.

Received 5 March 1997 ; accepted 10 July 1997.