Re: Pentagon delaying notices

[Stella Bourassa <Stellalogic@cfl.rr.com>]

What is the logic of the decision to withhold possible exposure to toxins of
former Lejeune residents information?  This is the most blatant disregard of
human life and the worse injustice imaginable!  The very thing to make 'this
study' feasible is finding as many, if not all, former residents, and
reviewing/implementing all the medical issues they have faced.  What a
heartbreaking and calloused statement to make about 'this study expected to
take years'.  How many children will die before families will have some sort
of answer or closure?  How many more children will be born to unsuspecting
parents with major medical problems?  How many of our men and women will
have to suffer physically without knowing why?  Injustice?  It is more than
that for those who 'willing' joined our military to 'serve and protect the
health and welfare of the public and environment'.

I hope someday families affected by contamination on these military sites,
will take themselves and their children, and stand before Pentagon, Senate
and Congressional members, and have them look into the eyes of those
suffering and say 'face to face' their 'official words'.

Stella
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "CPEO Moderator" <cpeo@cpeo.org>
To: <cpeo-military@igc.topica.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 11:42 AM
Subject: Pentagon delaying notices


> 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.
>
> This article can be viewed at:
>
http://www.jdnews.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=20257&Section=News
>
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