Woburn, Massachusetts, in the eastern United States, was one of the first areas to experience industrialization in the 19th century. In 1972, a 3-year-old boy named Jimmy, who lived there, was diagnosed with leukemia. Jimmy’s mother, Anne Anderson, believed that her son’s illness was caused by contaminated drinking water. A few days after Christmas in 1981, Jimmy tragically passed away at the age of 12. Subsequently, his mother, along with seven other households in the same village, filed a lawsuit against three companies suspected of contaminating the drinking water. The case later became the basis for the well-known true story and film, Civil Action.