House hearing to probe Camp Lejeune water contamination

[unhappycamper]

House hearing to probe Camp Lejeune water contamination
By Barbara Barrett | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Monday, September 13, 2010

WASHINGTON — Thirteen years ago, a federal scientific agency in Atlanta issued a sweeping report on the potential health effects of 30 years' worth of contaminated water at the big Marine base at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

It concluded that exposed adults were unlikely to get cancer from the water.

However, the report failed to consider more closely the effects of a key poison: benzene, which is a component of fuel and a chemical known to cause cancer.

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As many as a million people were exposed to water contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), benzene and other contaminants for three decades before the wells were closed.

Nearly 160,000 people from every state have registered with the Marine Corps to get information about the contamination. Many think their cancers and other illnesses are related to the water.