Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune has been in operation since 1942. Forty years after its establishment, in 1982, volatile organic compounds, commonly referred to as VOC’s, were discovered in Camp Lejeune’s drinking water. In fact, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) reported that between November 1957 and February 1987 former Marines and their families living on-base were exposed to contaminated drinking water. Presumably this resulted in many health disorders including birth defects and cancer in children, as well as myoletic leukemia, non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, breast cancer among adults, and other illnesses.
However, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was often slow in granting disability benefits to these veterans and in acknowledging a service-connection between their illnesses and their time at Camp Lejeune. In a recent article by Barbara Barrett of McClatchy Newspapers, she reports that although the Department of the Navy claims they need additional research to connect the contaminated drinking water to the many health problems of veterans one time stationed there, “the VA has quietly begun awarding benefits to a few Marines who were based at Camp Lejeune.
“It has been estimated that as many as a million people were exposed to the water from the 1950’s to the 1980’s.”
Further research has uncovered that benzene was among the many toxins found at Camp Lejeune. ATSDR states on their website:
Water from the Hadnot Point Treatment Plant was contaminated primarily by TCE (trichloroethylene). other contaminants in the drinking water included DCE (t-1,2-dichloroethylene), PCE and benzene. The system was contaminated by multiple sources; leaking underground storage tanks, industrial area spills, and waste disposal sites. ATSDR is currently modeling the Hadnot Point system.
If you suspect that you or your family members may have been affected by the water contamination at Camp Lejeune, contact the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for a disability application.