Ok, maybe Camp Lejeune was killing people with crud
US can’t vouch for cancer assurances to Marines
In an about face, the government Tuesday disavowed a 12-year-old federal report that found little or no cancer risk for adults who lived on a Marine base where drinking water was contaminated for three decades.
Up to 1 million people could have been exposed to toxins that seeped from a neighboring dry cleaner and industrial activity at Camp Lejeune, N.C., federal officials say. Now, a report that minimized the cancer threat for adults has been discredited.
“We can no longer stand behind the accuracy of the information in that document,” William Cibulas, director of health assessment for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said at a meeting in Atlanta. “We know too much now.”
Sick veterans, who became known as “poisoned patriots,” and their advocates never believed the report’s conclusions. Their families have filed claims for $33.8 billion in damages. A study continues on whether fetuses might have been harmed.
The agency estimated as many as 1 million people at the Atlantic-seaboard base could have been exposed to the toxins; the Marines have estimated 500,000.
Levels of one solvent, known as TCE, were the highest ever measured in a U.S. public water supply, according to an agency scientist.</em>
Ugh.
Marines: The few, the proud, the poisoned.
