IN 1980, I met a mother named Anne Anderson, whose love for her son would ensure the protection of countless children for generations to come. She lived in Woburn and came to me looking for answers to the question of why so many children around town—including her three-year-old son Jimmy—had fallen sick from a rare leukemia. She asked me to listen to her, to help her, and to find out once and for all if the Woburn cancer cluster might be related to toxic chemicals that leached into their water from decades of industrial pollution.

Out of our partnership, in the 1980s we passed and strengthened the Superfund law, a bedrock environmental program to clean up some of the worst pollution in communities across the country. Anne’s advocacy also helped establish Massachusetts’s first-ever cancer database to ensure no cancer clusters would go unreported. And a week ago, we celebrated a new victory: a long-overdue proposed ban on the use of the chemical linked to her son’s cancer, trichloroethylene (TCE).

I announced the ban last week in Woburn, together with the Environmental Protection Agency, by Anne’s side.

While serving in the House of Representatives, I represented Woburn and was familiar with the famous “Woburn odor,” a mix of hydrogen sulfide, methane, and toxic sludge left over from more than a century of leather processing and chemical production. Hazardous waste was discovered in 1979 at the Woburn Industri-Plex—high concentrations of a murderers’ row of chemicals like arsenic, lead, chromium, benzene, and toluene. One of the chemicals that leaked into wells and water throughout Woburn was TCE.

We now know that TCE is extremely toxic to human health. It causes cancer, affects reproductive systems, is neurotoxic, and compromises immune systems, among other serious health harms.

Here in Massachusetts, we’ve known the devastating effects of this chemical for decades, but throughout the country, TCE is still commonly found in consumer products, such as arts and crafts spray coatings, furniture care and cleaning products, and car maintenance products. TCE is also used in industrial and commercial processes as a degreaser, putting workers and communities near factories at risk.

In 1981, federal and state health organizations published a report that confirmed the Woburn cancer cluster. That same year, Anne’s son, Jimmy, died of leukemia.

In 1983, I held a hearing in Woburn, where Anne testified, to raise awareness and question the corporate polluters that were using the neighborhoods of this city as a sewer. I worked to enact the Superfund law to clean up the nation’s most toxic waste sites, including Woburn. I released research reports in 1985 and 1995, to ensure that we never forgot Jimmy or Woburn or the action that still needed to be taken to clean up the site and protect families.

For decades, I fought to keep Republicans from gutting the Superfund program and its funding. When Congress updated the Toxic Substances Control Act in 2015 and 2016, I knew we had to pass a law that would prevent other mothers from going through what Anne went through. That meant banning toxic chemicals like TCE.

For nearly 45 years, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed ban of all uses of TCE is the moment we’ve been fighting for. And we announced the ban at the James “Jimmy” Anderson Regional Transportation Center.

Thanks to the extraordinary work of Anne Anderson and the dedication of the Biden-Harris administration to protecting public health, we can finally say: no more sick kids, no more devastated families, no more TCE. 

As a fierce advocate and a loving mother, Anne was not ever going to be satisfied with just memories of her son; she demanded action.

We have come so far, but we still have more to do. We must resolve to act swiftly on all toxic chemicals, which have no place in our supply chain, in our communities, and in our bodies. In 1980, Anne asked me to listen to her plea and act—I hope my colleagues, both Democratic and Republican, will hear her voice and join this fight.

Edward Markey is a US senator from Massachusetts.