Between 1953 – 1987, military members, spouses, children and civilian DOD workers living and working at Camp Lejeune drank and bathed in water laced with known carcinogens such as trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), benzene, and vinyl chloride.
During the 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) labeled Camp Lejeune as major polluter and soon added the base to one of more than 150 military installations now listed on the EPA Superfund Site list. Regulations were added by the military in 1984 outlining the proper technique required for disposal of hazardous waste, such as organic compounds, which could possibly infiltrate and contaminate drinking water. Reports show that as early as April 1980, leakage problems from buried fuel tanks could make water contamination a possibility.
The military ignored all the warning signs and delayed their response to the need for testing to the mid ’80s. Potentially 1 million+ individuals were affected, either through ingesting tap water contaminated by dangerous chemicals and carcinogens found in the water supply, or by absorbing these toxins through their skin or through their breathing thanks to soil vapor intrusion.
The result – a massive, generational health catastrophe. Reports of rare male breast cancers, along with thousands of reports of cancers, leukemia, birth defects, and other rare illnesses continue to stream in. Historical evidence, ongoing resaerch and recently released studies suggest these illnesses derive directly from ongoing contamination exposure at Camp Lejeune.
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4 comments
I am a Marine veteran that was stationed at Camp Lejeune from 1975 through 1977. The list of problems that I received from the VA lists Female infertility. Is there any connection to this exposure for Male infertility?
hi my dad was stationed there at camp lejeune my mom lived on base when she was pregnant with me and gave birth to me in 1969 while having me my mother doctor found that she had kidney cancer and took she kidneys out years later she died from her body rejecting a kidney transplant when i turned 18 i joined the military then got out but the VA doctors say my mental condition is partly to blame cuz of the bad water on camp lejuene but the military is telling me to show proff that we lived there I need help and the VA reps. dont have a clue about the bad water on camp lejeune so they are NO HELP so what do i do
[…] the Civilian Exposure over a year ago, after my husband passed away. He was a Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune from 1965-1968. He was also sent to Camp Hansen, Okinawa for thirteen months during that period. He […]
The base has not been fully cleared there is still contaminated water there.. to this day. I believe that base was contaminated with toxic waste that it should have been close permanently closed. 30 plus years contamination of the area…. and the U.S. government was able to clean it up 3-5 years. We didn’t have the technology to fully clean up that area that size nor the money. It was a radioactive dump site. It spread all over camp lejeune. That base needs to be closed.