American marines drank water contaminated with carcinogens, for thirty years, a special report from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reveals.
The soldiers based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina ingested water that contained around 40 times the safety limits of toxic substances according to appointed health investigators.The government disclosed these sordid details after many families gave accounts of various forms of cancers and other illnesses among them, which they claim are linked to the water they drank when based at Camp Lejeune.
Among these, at least 850 former residents of the base have filed administrative claims, which call for almost four billion dollars, as compensation for exposure to the toxins. The toxins include the industrial solvents T-C-E (tetrachloroethylene) also known as P-C-E, which are dry leaning fluids, and linked with cancer.
One doctor told Congress that he was stunned to learn he had a rare non-Hodgkins lymphoma after working at the base in the 1980s.
As many as 75,000 people may have drunk water for 30 years, according to CDC until the affected wells were closed. The CDC says that Marines and their families drank the contaminated water during base assignments of an average of 2 years.
Source-Medindia
ANN/S
