Our blog often discusses Camp Lejeune, a 246 square-mile Marine Corp base in Jacksonville, North Carolina and the large-scale water contamination there. Recently, the VA decided to make eight diseases presumptively service-connected for prior residents of Camp Lejeune.
- Adult leukemia
- Aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes
- Bladder Cancer
- Kidney Cancer
- Liver Cancer
- Multiple myeloma
- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and
- Parkinson’s disease
Briefly, the water supply of Camp Lejeune and specifically Hadnot Point was infiltrated by a number of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which included perchloroethylene (PCE) a dry cleaning agent, trichloroethylene, a degreaser and paint stripper, and benzene, a component of gasoline due to a combination of poor disposal practices of an off-base dry cleaner and leaking gasoline storage tanks on base.
Today the accepted limit for VOCs in drinking water is 5 parts per billion (ppb). However, when the ATSDR tested water at Camp Lejeune in 1982, the severity of chemical infiltration was around 1,400ppb. The severely contaminated water was used in everything from bathing to cooking and drinking. Between the 1950s and 1980s, hundreds of thousands of Marines and civilians were exposed to the contamination.
When the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) reported their findings, the Marine Corps started a congressional mandate notification campaign to former residents of the base in 2008. There is now a registry of over 135,000 people who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune between 1957 and 1987.
In 2012, Congress passed the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012 which for many is less known than the new presumption. The Act of 2012 is both broader and narrower in a sense than the presumptions. Broader in that it covers more diseases associated with exposure to VOCs, but narrower in that it does not provide for any type of service-connected compensation. Firstly, what diseases are covered?
The Caring for Camp Lejeune families act covers:
- Esophageal cancer,
- Lung cancer
- Breast Cancer
- Bladder Cancer
- Kidney Cancer
- Leukemia
- Multiple myeloma
- Myelodysplastic syndromes
- Renal toxicity
- Hepatic steatosis
- Female infertility
- Miscarriage
- Scleroderma
- Neurobehavioral effects
- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
As stated it is narrower in the sense that these diseases are not presumptively service connected. According to the research conducted in connection with the presumption discussed above, there is insufficient data to show that all of these diseases are related to exposure to VOCs, and therefore are not presumptively service connected.
Congress, in contrast, believed that ATSDR research showed sufficient relation and therefore established in the Act that any veteran who served a cumulative 30 days or more between January 1, 1957, and December 31, 1987, at Camp Lejeune should be entitled to free hospital care and medical services related to any of the fifteen diseases listed. (Additionally, there is a provision for family members who lived on base with the veteran, but that gets into murkier law and requires exhaustion of other options first.)
The Act of 2012 is important for our veterans to remember because it helps, if not with service connection, the costs associated with medical care. It can also be a guide in claims that could be filed in relation to the chemical exposure endured while serving our country. Given that not all of the diseases are presumptively service connected, a veteran must go about getting direct service connection which can sometimes be tricky. It is always a good idea to check with a knowledgeable advocate to make sure to get all the benefits to which you are entitled.
Thank you for your service.
