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Contaminated drinking water news:

EPA Report: Trichloroethylene causes cancer, found in drinking water.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – A toxic chemical found to be in drinking water at Camp Lejeune back in the eighties is linked to cancer.

It’s a story that Nine on Your Side has been investigating for years. Some people have been waiting on this study for 20 years – during which time – have developed cancer after drinking tap water at Camp Lejeune.

A total of 2,900 claims have been filed in relation to health problems and drinking the toxic tap water. Claims now backed by a federal agency.

“The EPA’s change in designation of TCE from a probably carcinogen to a known carcinogen will not change our approach to Camp Lejeune historical drinking water,” said Capt. Kendra Hardesty, spokeswoman for Camp Lejeune.

It’s toxic drinking water believed to contain Tricholorethylene or TCE, now proven by the environment protection agency to be linked to cancer characterizing TCE as “carcinogenic to humans.”

Between the 1950s and 1980s people who lived on base at Camp Lejeune, drank and even breathed in the chemical.

Reports say it leaked from tanks at the Hadnot Point fuel farm and into underground drinking water.

The EPA going as far as to say movement of TCE from the soil to drinking water and finally to the air is a “serious concern.”

“We’re still supporting the scientific organizations because we want to find answers as much as they do,” said Hardesty.

It’s a search for answers coming 20 years after the first victims like retired Marine Jerry Ensminger started to come forward. A slow process, he says, but a step forward nonetheless.

“This has taken 20 plus years to get this one risk assessment on this one chemical out. 20 plus years,” said Ensminger.

Camp Lejeune along with the Navy are doing their own research on the water contamination, but still maintain that the drinking water on base meets all the EPA standards.

“Well I want the Marine Corp and the Department of the Navy to step up to the plate and live up to their rhetoric. I want them to truly take care of their own,” said Ensminger.

Ensminger blames the Department of Defense for, what he says, is trying to hide what is being considered the largest recorded environmental incident on a domestic Department of Defense installation.

Now that the truth is out about TCE, Ensminger hopes the estimated 750,000 people who may have been exposed to the carcinogen between the 1950s and 1980s will get the compensation he says they deserve.

In a statement from Senator Richard Burr released Friday, he says, “While this is an important step towards providing care for those who suffer adverse health effects resulting from exposure to toxic water at Camp Lejeune, we still have a long way to go.”

Burr potentially referring to his Caring for Veterans Act, meant to provid that compensation, but has now all but disappeared in congress bureaucracy.

To read the full EPA summary of the assessment, enter the keywords: TCE Report right here on WNCT.com.

via EPA Report: Trichloroethylene causes cancer, found in drinking water | Eyewitness News 9.

Drinking water contamination – Camp Lejeune archives

Camp Lejeune: male breast cancer reports likely to grow.

|by:NewsInferno

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Laurie

This entry was posted in Camp Lejeune Toxic Water. Bookmark the permalink..

It is believed that cases of male breast cancer tied to contaminated drinking water at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base in North Carolina will rise in number. According to a report from the St. Petersburg Times, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) confirmed last week that 184 male Marine Corps veterans with a history of breast cancer have already been identified in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) records. Now the agency is trying to determine how many of those men may have been exposed to Camp Lejeun’s toxic drinking water during their career.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, some members of a panel advising ATSDR on Camp Lejeune believe as many as half of the 184 male breast cancer victims identified thus far may have served at the base. Richard Clapp, an epidemiologist and panel member, told the St. Petersburg Times that 40 percent or more was a plausible estimate as to how many of the 184 Marines with male breast cancer might have ties to Lejeune.

Only about 38 percent of the VA database has been searched thus for male beast cancer victims. As a result, the number could increase significantly by the time ATSDR completes its investigation.

From the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s, an estimated 1 million people were exposed to water that was poisoned by benzene, trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and vinyl chloride, which the Department of the Navy eventually blamed on an off base dry cleaner. As we’ve reported in the past, many scientists have called the drinking water contamination at Camp Lejeune the worst in the nation’s history.

Recently, lawsuits involving toxic water at Camp Lejeune were consolidated in a multidistrict litigation and transferred to the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia. These lawsuits allege that the U.S. government knowingly exposed hundreds of thousands of Marines, sailors, their family members, and civilian employees to highly contaminated drinking water, and at the same time actively disseminated disinformation to victims in an effort to minimize the significance of the exposure.

“How many men do you have to find with breast cancer to accept that the water poisoned us?” asked Jack Partain, a Tallahassee insurance investigator who also serves on the advisory panel, told the St. Petersburg Times. “How many bodies do you have to stack up? People should be enraged by this.”

Partain, himself a breast cancer survivor, was born at Camp Lejeune and was exposed to the toxic water as a small child. He told the St. Petersburg Times that he has tracked down 73 other men – including a dozen who never served in the Marines – who were once Camp Lejeune residents who have also had breast cancer.

It should be noted that breast cancer in men is exceedingly rare, with only one in 100,000 men diagnosed with the disease.

Unfortunately, VA data does not reflect cases among civilians who lived and worked at Camp Lejeune. The ATSDR is considering launching a case control study see if these breast cancer numbers are abnormally high among this group.

Next year, a clearer picture of the health consequences associated with Camp Lejeune might emerge if, as planned, the ATSDR releases a study comparing Lejeune residents with a control group at Camp Pendelton in California. The study is comparing the mortality rates associated with a list of disease, including breast cancer, between the two groups.

This entry was posted in Camp Lejeune Toxic Water. Bookmark the permalink

via Camp Lejeune Male Breast Cancer Reports Likely to Grow | NewsInferno.

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Contaminated drinking water news:

Arsenic in Juice 12/4/11 | What’s For Dinner – Home

Consumer Reports just tested apple and grape juice and found worrisome levels of arsenic in a number of samples – worrisome considering how much fruit juice many children drink.

Zoe Hamilton limits how much juice she gives her daughters because she’s concerned about the “empty calories.” But there are other serious reasons for concern. Consumer Reports tested 28 apple juices and three grape juices purchased in the New York metropolitan area. Of the 88 samples analyzed, ten percent had arsenic levels that exceeded federal standards for bottled and municipal water.

“The majority of the arsenic detected was the inorganic form – a known carcinogen linked to skin, bladder, and lung cancer.” And with 12 juices Consumer Reports tested, at least one sample contained lead levels that exceeded standards for bottled water. Urvashi Rangan,

“Our test was limited, so we can’t draw any conclusions about any particular type or brand of juice. But the higher levels of arsenic and lead we found are troubling because many children drink a lot of juice, and their small body size makes them particularly vulnerable.” One likely source of the contamination is pesticides containing arsenic that were used in agriculture. Even though most are now banned, they can remain in the soil. The advocacy arm of Consumer Reports is urging the Food and Drug Administration to set standards for juice.

Urvashi Rangan, “We think the lead limits should be five parts per billion, the current standards for bottled water, or even lower. And for arsenic – three parts per billion. That’s attainable. 41 percent of the samples we tested met both those levels.

” The Juice Products Association told Consumer Reports: “We are committed to providing nutritious and safe fruit juices … and will comply with limits” established by the Food and Drug Administration. For now, Consumer Reports says the best advice for parents is to do what Zoe does and limit how much juice your children drink. The Food and Drug Administration told Consumer Reports it’s reviewing its own data to see if guidelines for juice should be set.

It turns out the F-D-A has found levels of arsenic in apple juice that are even higher than what Consumer Reports’ tests discovered.

I’m Martha Koloski with today’s On Your Side..”

(Copyright 2011 by WKBT News8000.com)

via Arsenic in Juice 12/4/11 | What’s For Dinner – Home.