Phantom Blooper
10-08-09, 08:50 AM
Senate Committee holds hearing for Lejeune water contamination
October 08, 2009 12:30 AM
HOPE HODGE
Updated at 8:21 a.m. to clarify which day the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing is.
The weeks following a national media broadcast about water contamination aboard Camp Lejeune have been filled with a flurry of legislative activity.
A Senate defense appropriations bill was passed Tuesday night containing an amendment pertaining to victims of chemical-laden drinking water on base between 1950 and 1985. The amendment would prevent disposal of claims filed by former military and their families connecting illnesses to that water until a lengthy course of testing by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is complete.
“I really think we cannot leave these families with the mounting medical problems and the half answers that they’ve been getting,” Sen. Kay Hagan, D-NC, told the Daily News on Wednesday. “If we stop now that mission will not be accomplished.”
ATSDR announced last month that it would continue tests, including a health study and water modeling, in spite of a National Research Council report in June that found no conclusive link between the chemicals TCE and PCE in base water and hundreds of reported illnesses. The studies, Hagan said, could take two years or more to complete.
Earlier Tuesday, Rep. Brad Miller, D-NC, introduced in the House the “Caring for Camp Lejeune Veterans Act of 2009,” a partner to a bill already in the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
The bill would extend VA care to any veteran or family member who spent time on base during the 35-year period and suffers ailments believed to be caused by the water. The House version of the bill, unlike the Senate version, includes a clause that allows coverage to be expanded if any new maladies or ill effects of the water are uncovered in the future.
The list of diseases believed to be caused by the contaminated water is already long and unusual, including, among other things, birth defects, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, kidney disease, and a multitude of cancers, including the very rare male breast cancer.
The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Thursday to explore other possible exposure issues within the Department of Defense and Veteran’s Affairs to discuss and identify other military-run superfund sites like Camp Lejeune. Sen. Richard Burr, R-NC, has announced that he plans to press for a resolution to the Lejeune issue.
“Former Marines, their families, and former employees at Camp Lejeune have waited far too long for answers,” he said.
Among those testifying at the hearing is Mike Partain of Tallahassee, Florida, a male breast cancer survivor who was conceived and born aboard Camp Lejeune.
Partain said he was testifying “to illustrate that the veterans are being affected by this and not only the veterans, but their families. A lot of these people have no insurance, and they have no way to get adequate medical care for their families.”
If he had the opportunity, Partain said, he would tell the committee how another male breast cancer patient, Kris Thomas, had presented the link between male breast cancer and water on base to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007. Nothing was done then to explore the connection.
An Onslow County native, Jerry Ensminger, is in Washington, D.C. as well this week. Ensminger, of Richlands, is a military retiree who believes he lost his 9-year-old daughter Janey to leukemia caused by toxic water on base.
Ensminger travels to Washington nearly every week, calling lobbying on behalf of the “poisoned patriots” his full-time job.
But Partain said that if Congress does not begin to hold the Department of Defense, the Marine Corps and the Navy responsible for what happened at Camp Lejeune, it will be difficult for him to keep up the fight.
“I scraped the bottom of the barrel to come up (to Washington),” he said. “We can’t fight this. We don’t have the resources.”
If Congress continues to advance these issues, he said, it would “level the playing field.”
Meanwhile, as knowledge of the issue grows, people continue to come forward, connecting their illnesses with exposure to the water on base. The number of men who report male breast cancer and ties to Camp Lejeune has grown from 22 to 40 in the two weeks since a CNN special on the phenomenon aired.
Partain said he had talked to 39 of these men personally and was still waiting to hear from one. Every time the media brought attention to the issue, he said, a Web site he helps to run, Thefewtheproudtheforgotten.com, gets hundreds of new hits, and new people come forward to identify themselves as victims of contamination.
And the group continues to look to the media to get word out, with Partain, Hagan and another breast cancer survivor, Jim Fontella, reprising the issue last night on CNN with network anchor Campbell Brown.
Representatives from Camp Lejeune did not return requests for comment.
For more information, visit the Lejeune Water Contamination Resource Center under news, special reports at jdnews.com.
Contact Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453, or at hhodge@freedomenc.com.
October 08, 2009 12:30 AM
HOPE HODGE
Updated at 8:21 a.m. to clarify which day the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing is.
The weeks following a national media broadcast about water contamination aboard Camp Lejeune have been filled with a flurry of legislative activity.
A Senate defense appropriations bill was passed Tuesday night containing an amendment pertaining to victims of chemical-laden drinking water on base between 1950 and 1985. The amendment would prevent disposal of claims filed by former military and their families connecting illnesses to that water until a lengthy course of testing by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is complete.
“I really think we cannot leave these families with the mounting medical problems and the half answers that they’ve been getting,” Sen. Kay Hagan, D-NC, told the Daily News on Wednesday. “If we stop now that mission will not be accomplished.”
ATSDR announced last month that it would continue tests, including a health study and water modeling, in spite of a National Research Council report in June that found no conclusive link between the chemicals TCE and PCE in base water and hundreds of reported illnesses. The studies, Hagan said, could take two years or more to complete.
Earlier Tuesday, Rep. Brad Miller, D-NC, introduced in the House the “Caring for Camp Lejeune Veterans Act of 2009,” a partner to a bill already in the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
The bill would extend VA care to any veteran or family member who spent time on base during the 35-year period and suffers ailments believed to be caused by the water. The House version of the bill, unlike the Senate version, includes a clause that allows coverage to be expanded if any new maladies or ill effects of the water are uncovered in the future.
The list of diseases believed to be caused by the contaminated water is already long and unusual, including, among other things, birth defects, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, kidney disease, and a multitude of cancers, including the very rare male breast cancer.
The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Thursday to explore other possible exposure issues within the Department of Defense and Veteran’s Affairs to discuss and identify other military-run superfund sites like Camp Lejeune. Sen. Richard Burr, R-NC, has announced that he plans to press for a resolution to the Lejeune issue.
“Former Marines, their families, and former employees at Camp Lejeune have waited far too long for answers,” he said.
Among those testifying at the hearing is Mike Partain of Tallahassee, Florida, a male breast cancer survivor who was conceived and born aboard Camp Lejeune.
Partain said he was testifying “to illustrate that the veterans are being affected by this and not only the veterans, but their families. A lot of these people have no insurance, and they have no way to get adequate medical care for their families.”
If he had the opportunity, Partain said, he would tell the committee how another male breast cancer patient, Kris Thomas, had presented the link between male breast cancer and water on base to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007. Nothing was done then to explore the connection.
An Onslow County native, Jerry Ensminger, is in Washington, D.C. as well this week. Ensminger, of Richlands, is a military retiree who believes he lost his 9-year-old daughter Janey to leukemia caused by toxic water on base.
Ensminger travels to Washington nearly every week, calling lobbying on behalf of the “poisoned patriots” his full-time job.
But Partain said that if Congress does not begin to hold the Department of Defense, the Marine Corps and the Navy responsible for what happened at Camp Lejeune, it will be difficult for him to keep up the fight.
“I scraped the bottom of the barrel to come up (to Washington),” he said. “We can’t fight this. We don’t have the resources.”
If Congress continues to advance these issues, he said, it would “level the playing field.”
Meanwhile, as knowledge of the issue grows, people continue to come forward, connecting their illnesses with exposure to the water on base. The number of men who report male breast cancer and ties to Camp Lejeune has grown from 22 to 40 in the two weeks since a CNN special on the phenomenon aired.
Partain said he had talked to 39 of these men personally and was still waiting to hear from one. Every time the media brought attention to the issue, he said, a Web site he helps to run, Thefewtheproudtheforgotten.com, gets hundreds of new hits, and new people come forward to identify themselves as victims of contamination.
And the group continues to look to the media to get word out, with Partain, Hagan and another breast cancer survivor, Jim Fontella, reprising the issue last night on CNN with network anchor Campbell Brown.
Representatives from Camp Lejeune did not return requests for comment.
For more information, visit the Lejeune Water Contamination Resource Center under news, special reports at jdnews.com.
Contact Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453, or at hhodge@freedomenc.com.