In Congressional testimony, Jerry Ensminger, a Marine for 24 years, lost his 9-year-old daughter to leukemia.
HIGHLIGHTS
• 75,000 Marines, families exposed to toxic tap water, health official said
• Chemicals in water may be carcinogens
• Children on based have had cancer and other disorders
• 850 former Camp Lejeune residents have filed legal claims
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some 75,000 Marines and their families at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina were exposed to toxic tap water that may have caused cancer and birth defects, a federal health official testified Tuesday.
Results of a new study of the base's water were released Tuesday, the same day lawmakers heard emotional testimony from families who were affected by the water, which contained 40 times the amount of toxins considered safe by today's standards.
Camp Lejeune's water supply was polluted from 1957 until 1987 by TCE, a degreasing solvent, and PCE, a dry cleaning agent. The chemicals apparently came from a dry cleaning store near the base, according to the government.
The substances are possible carcinogens.
Camp kids have cancer, disorders
Jerry Ensminger, a 24-year Marine Corps veteran, said his daughter, Jane, born in 1976 at Camp Lejeune, was diagnosed with leukemia at age 6 and died at age 9.
Jeff Byron, a former Marine air traffic controller, moved with his family into base housing in 1982, three months after his first daughter Andrea was born and two years before his daughter Rachel was born.
Rachel is developmentally disabled, has spina bifida and was born with a cleft palate, he said. Andrea has a rare bone marrow syndrome known as aplastic anemia, according to Byron's testimony.
Dr. Michael Gros, a Navy obstetrician at Camp Lejeune in the early 1980s, was diagnosed with lymphoma after living in Camp Lejeune housing, he said.
Gros said he has had to give up his medical practice and his treatment has cost more than $4.5 million.
Thomas Sinks, deputy director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the reports are anecdotal and that there has been no proven link between specific cases of illness and the contaminated water.
At least 850 former Camp Lejeune residents have filed legal claims. (From CNN.com)
***Executive Fish says: The poison in question was pumped to Marine households from 1957 and 1987, and was discovered in 1982. Why did they not cap those two wells immediately upon discovery, and take action? Test your water. Filter your water.
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