Senators push $1.8M for Lejeune contamination research

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Senators push $1.8M for Lejeune contamination research
By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, December 14, 2009

Four U.S. senators are urging the Navy to fund a $1.8 million health study of military families who were exposed to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune, N.C., between 1957 and 1987.

"We have an obligation to the men and women who serve our country and their families to investigate this matter to the full extent," reads a letter to the Navy signed by North Carolina Sens. Kay Hagan, a Democrat, and Richard Burr, a Republican, and Florida Sens. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and George LeMieux, a Republican.

In May 1982, scientists found the presence of degreaser tricholoroethylene, or TCE, and the dry-cleaning solvent tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, in the drinking water sources that supplied water to Camp Lejeune’s Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point housing areas. The wells that supplied the water were not shut down until 1985.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has requested the Navy commit $1.8 million on a comprehensive mortality study on the issue, the senators wrote.

The Navy acknowledged it has received the senators’ letter, but officials declined comment on the issue until Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has a chance to respond directly to the lawmakers, a Navy spokeswoman said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66657