Many military service members and their families suffered from severe medical conditions caused by toxic chemicals like trichloroethylene, benzene, and other hazardous substances in the water supply at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base located in North Carolina. These harmful chemicals were allowed to leach into the drinking water for decades.
What is the Legal Recourse?
As the number of wrongful death and disability claims grows for veterans poisoned by drinking water at Camp Lejeune, groups of veterans are suing to force the Navy to provide more transparency in its adjudication process. The Few, the Proud and the Forgotten, and Vietnam Veterans of America, represented by The Clinic, filed suit in April 2016, seeking to release documents related to the contamination.
The water-related issues are complex, and the available scientific information needs to be more conclusive. Moreover, the current and future health studies are complicated by factors that could influence the magnitude of exposures. For example, self-reported water consumption and bathing patterns are essential factors in the likelihood of exposure but are not readily available in archival records.
Individuals affected by health issues linked to water contamination at the Camp Lejeune military base have sought legal recourse through the Camp Lejeune lawsuit, aiming to secure compensation for health problems attributed to exposure to contaminated drinking water during their time at the base.
In October 1980, military chemists at the Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point water treatment plants began testing drinking water for organic solvents such as tetrachloroethylene (PCE) used in dry cleaning. But the Marines ignored the findings, and the contaminated water persisted for decades.
Who is the Legal Recourse for?
Scientific and medical evidence has shown that water sources that supplied Camp Lejeune’s family housing areas, including the Hadnot Point and Tarawa Terrace treatment plants, were contaminated with Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) for decades. The contaminants seeped into the drinking water that residents and workers drank, bathed in, and cooked with at the base.
The water contamination at Camp Lejeune results from several factors, including a nearby dry cleaning business that dumped wastewater into drains for years. That wastewater included trichloroethylene (TCE), an organic solvent and suspected carcinogen, and vinyl chloride (VC), an industrial compound with multiple health impacts when inhaled or ingested.
Under the 2012 law, those who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune between August 1, 1953, and December 31, 1987, may be entitled to disability compensation if they have one of the 16 medical conditions presumed to be related to their exposure to the tainted water. Veterans with other conditions related to their exposure are eligible for health care at no cost if the evidence supports the claim.
How Do I Know I Have a Case?
When the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune opened on North Carolina’s Atlantic coast in 1941, it needed proper environmental stewardship. Marines and their families drank, bathed, cooked, and washed laundry in water contaminated with toxic chemicals for decades.
Two on-base treatment plants, Hadnot Point and Tarawa Terrace, had their water tainted with volatile organic compounds. The contaminant levels in these areas were 240 to 3,400 times higher than regulated safety standards.
Among the volatile organic compounds that seeped into the water supply was tetrachloroethylene (PERC), an industrial solvent most commonly used in dry cleaning fabrics and metal degreasing. Exposure to PERC can result in cancers, congenital disabilities, and other serious health issues.
Another chemical found in the water was benzene, which is a carcinogen that can affect the bone marrow and red blood cell count, causing life-altering conditions and even death. Exposure to benzene has also been linked to miscarriage, female infertility, Parkinson’s disease, leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and bladder, kidney, esophageal, or pancreatic cancer.
How Do I Get Started?
Thousands of Marines and their families suffered from severe medical conditions because of exposure to the toxic chemicals in Camp Lejeune’s water. These ailments included many different types of cancers, hepatic steatosis, kidney problems, and other organ-related issues. Some of these illnesses led to wrongful death lawsuits.
The drinking water in Camp Lejeune included hazardous substances that originated from two different treatment facilities. These chemicals included a wide variety of dangerous substances that have been linked to many health problems, including hepatic steatosis, cancers like bladder and lung, blood diseases such as nephritis and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and immune system-related issues like rheumatoid arthritis.
These health issues can cause a family to lose time at work, spend a lifetime’s worth of medical bills, and struggle with expensive treatments such as chemotherapy. It allows victims to file for compensation that can be used to pay for these expenses. To do so, contacting an experienced attorney as soon as possible is essential.