Pentagon delaying notices

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

North Carolina
THE DAILY NEWS
Pentagon delaying notices
Thomas Dail
February 16, 2004

Pentagon officials say they probably won't consider telling former Camp
Lejeune residents of their possible exposure to toxins in water until a
federal agency finishes a study of childhood cancer and birth defects in
children who were exposed to the poisons before they were born.

Last week, U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., called for the Secretary of
the Navy to notify people who lived on base before 1985 about their
possible exposure to tetrachloroehtylene, or PCE, and trichloroethylene,
or TCE.

The contamination was found in wells in 1980. The wells were capped in
1985.

After a survey identified 103 cases of childhood cancer and birth
defects among 12,598 children carried in the womb while their mothers
lived at Camp Lejeune, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry, or ATSDR, began working on a full study to see whether
drinking water contamination increased a fetus' risk of developing
certain birth defects or childhood cancers after birth.

Study expected to take years

That study will likely take years and involves reconstructing the base
water system as it existed before 1985 to determine which housing areas
got which water.

Pentagon officials said they wanted to see the results of the study
before further notifying former residents.

"Based on (the) ATSDR results, we will expeditiously consider the need
for additional notification," officials said in a statement that was
delivered by a spokesman for the Secretary of the Navy and that
originated at Headquarters Marine Corps.

Some who feel that the contaminated water made them or their families
sick have asked the Marine Corps to notify previous residents.

Many said they didn't find out about the contamination until 1999, when
ATSDR began distributing questionnaires to families with children born
at Camp Lejeune between 1968 and 1985.

The military said it notified base residents several times, including in
media reports in 1985, when the base shut down contaminated wells and
put water-use restrictions in place to make up for the lost water.

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