Maritime Corps Base Camp Lejeune, located in North Carolina, served as An important U.S. army coaching facility from 1941 until its deactivation in 1997. Throughout its active many years, A large number of support users as well as their family members lived on The bottom, making it a vivid and close-knit Neighborhood.
On the other hand, latest revelations about the contaminated water supply at Camp Lejeune have elevated worries regarding the health of those that lived on the base. From the nineteen fifties to your nineteen eighties, consuming water at The bottom was contaminated with harmful chemical substances, together with benzene, vinyl chloride, and trichloroethylene. These chemicals, which were being Utilized in dry cleansing, degreasing, and metalworking processes, are linked to a number of really serious health conditions, which include cancers, delivery defects, and developmental Issues.
In 2012, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) identified 8 conditions related to exposure to the contaminated h2o at Camp Lejeune:
Grownup leukemia
Aplastic anemia as well as other myelodysplastic syndromes
Bladder most cancers
Kidney cancer
Liver most cancers
Several myeloma
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Parkinson’s disease
For people who lived or labored on The bottom for a minimum of 30 times between January 1, 1957, and December 31, 1987, the VA presents overall health care Gains for the above mentioned mentioned conditions. Furthermore, the VA has proven a presumptive provider link for specific disabilities, which implies that veterans and their people can get compensation Advantages without needing to prove a immediate relationship concerning their ailment as well as their army support.
Irrespective of these efforts, quite Former residents at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune a few previous people of Camp Lejeune continue to struggle to entry the care and guidance they need to have. The VA has confronted criticism for its gradual processing of promises and its toxic water exposure on base strict eligibility necessities, which several former citizens think are far too restrictive.
It's important to notice which the contamination at Camp Lejeune isn't a novel concern. All kinds of other armed service bases and civilian communities have faced equivalent troubles, and the government has taken ways to handle them. However, for the previous residents of Camp Lejeune, the health effects of their exposure into the contaminated h2o will proceed to generally be felt for generations to come.
In conclusion, the previous inhabitants of Maritime Corps Foundation Camp Lejeune should have our assistance and recognition for his or her company to our region. It really is our duty in order that they've got use of the treatment and Advantages they require, and to work to forestall identical environmental dangers from impacting other armed service communities Down the road.