Members of the Marines and their families were exposed to contaminated water piped into their homes during their service at Camp Lejeune. Jerry Ensminger (Ret., U.S.M.C.) and Mike Partain have started to spread the word about 30 years of water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. The water contamination by industrial solvents, gasoline and other chemicals has led to stillborn infants, infant deaths, birth defects, childhood leukemia, and cancers and diseases in Marines, their spouses, and children. Mike Partain was exposed in utero at Camp Lejeune in 1967 and at age 39 developed a form of cancer rare in men.
According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the Tarawa Terrace water system at Camp Lejeune was contaminated from 1957 to 1987. The contaminants included industrial solvents, Benzene, Toluene, Ethyl benzene and Xylene. These chemicals are known to cause miscarriages, birth defects, lymphoma, leukemia, and cancer.
During the 30 years of exposure, as many as a million Marines, sailors, and family members on the base may have been affected by chemicals in their drinking and bathing water. The benzene cancers and other diseases caused by these poisons may kill quickly or may take ten or twenty years or more to appear. If you or someone you care about lived or worked at Camp Lejuene before 1987 or were carried in utero by your mother there during that time, you should register with the USMC to receive current information on the Camp Lejuene water contamination research.
The Janey Ensminger Act, named after Jerry Ensminger’s 9-year-old daughter who died of leukemia, is currently before Congress. This Act will require the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide health care to Marines, sailors and family members suffering from their exposure to contaminated well water at Camp Lejeune.