Dingell calls for expanded health study at Camp Lejeune

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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NEWS RELEASE
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE DEMOCRATS
Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Immediate Release
April 14, 2004
Dingell Requests New Public Health Assessment at Camp Lejeune


Washington, D.C. ? Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member of the
U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, today asked the Agency of
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to conduct a new Public
Health Assessment for Camp Lejeune, a Marine base in North Carolina.

For at least five years, the military supplied residents of Camp Lejeune
with water that was known to be contaminated with toxic Volatile Organic
Compounds (VOCs). Water monitoring data showed that the tap water
provided to military families contained at least five VOCs that are
suspected or known to cause cancer in humans. Two of these VOCs,
trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE), are the same
chemicals thought to have caused childhood leukemia in the children of
Woburn, Massachusetts.

"We know that for years these people were provided water with terribly
high levels of dangerous chemicals," said Dingell. "We owe the Marine
families who lived on this base more than a quick glance over the facts
to determine if anyone was hurt from drinking the tap water."

In order to evaluate whether families had been hurt by drinking this
contaminated water, the ATSDR conducted a Public Health Assessment in
1997 at Camp Lejeune. The U.S. Marine Corps has cited the 1997 ATSDR
study on their web site in support of its contention that adults who
consumed the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune were not likely to
experience adverse health affects. But, serious concerns have been
raised about the assumptions used in the study and their current
validity. For example, there is new scientific information about the
adverse health effects of certain contaminants involved in the
assessment. Further, the 1997 assessment used the assumption that the
families at Camp Lejeune only turned on the water taps in their homes
four out of seven days a week and that the longest anyone lived at Camp
Lejeune was three years. The study also ignored the combined effects of
the numerous toxic chemicals present in the drinking water.

As a result of the 1997 Public Health Assessment, the ATSDR is now
conducting a full epidemiological study. However, the subjects of this
study only include children whose mothers were pregnant with them while
living on the base between 1968 and 1985. No follow-up activity appears
to be ongoing with children or adults outside of that category who also
lived on the base during the five-year period in question. Dingell is
concerned that the scope of the ATSDR's current study is too narrow to
make any conclusions about the estimated 50,000 to 200,000 people who
may have been exposed to the contaminated water. Hundreds of people who
were stationed at the base since the 1960s are reporting diseases and
cancer. In addition, most Marine families who were stationed at Camp
Lejeune do not even know that they were exposed to toxic chemicals.

"Military families who are already sacrificing so much for this country
should not have to worry about potentially life-threatening toxins in
the water they drink, cook with, and bathe in," said Dingell.

-30-

Prepared by the Democratic staff of the Committee on Energy and Commerce
2322 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515

For a formatted version of this press release, see
http://www.house.gov/commerce_democrats/press/108nr33.htm

For more documents from the Energy and Commerce Committee Democratic
members and staff, including their analysis of the Defense Department's
Readines and Range Preservation Initiative, see
http://www.house.gov/commerce_democrats/

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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