Tuesday, July 5, 2022 - Marine veterans, civil workers, and their families are tantalizingly close to being able to file a lawsuit against the Department of Defense (DOJ) and the Federal government for being negligent and not protecting them from the damaging health effects of PFAS contaminated drinking water. The federal government denied for decades that the base's tap water was contaminated with deadly carcinogens. A North Carolina dry-cleaning establishment allegedly improperly disposed of dry cleaning solution, a known carcinogen, that for years leached into the local water supply, contaminating it. Other probable sources of Camp Lejeune water contamination include but are not limited to toxic burn pit contaminates and PFAS forever chemicals from firefighting foam.
Individuals who lived worked or played on or near the Camp Lejeune Marine Installation between 1953 and 1987, for at least 30-days, initially qualify to file a claim. Each claim is to be taken by the courts individually and will stand on its own merits. People that have developed cancer, or the loved ones of those who have died from many different types of cancer should speak with a Camp Lejeune water contamination lawyer to see if their disease or cause of death qualifies them to file a claim seeking lump-sum monetary compensation and punitive awards. Experts agree that over one million people lived, worked, and played on or near the base during the time in question and thousands of cases of cancer and cancer-related deaths could be attributed to somehow consuming polluted Camp Lejeune tap water. It is suspected that thousands of children on or around the marine base die from childhood leukemia and other forms of cancer because their mothers drank contaminated Camp Lejeune tap water while they were pregnant. Women who were pregnant during their time on or near the base also have had abnormally high numbers of miscarriages and stillbirths. A high number of children have also been born with birth defects. According to CBS News, "A long-awaited study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a link between tainted tap water at a U.S. Marine Corps base in North Carolina and increased risk of serious birth defects and childhood cancers. The study concludes that babies born to mothers who drank the tap water while pregnant were four times more likely than women in similar circumstances who did not consume the water to have such serious birth defects as spina bifida. Babies whose mothers were exposed also had a slightly elevated risk of such childhood cancers as leukemia, according to the results." Other CDC tests on the Camp Lejeune tap water found levels of PFAS forever chemicals like trichloroethylene more than 10,000 times greater than the levels the health agency deems safe. The CDC found more than 100 cases of birth defects in children born at Camp Lejeune, including spina bifida, anencephaly, oral clefts and cancers.
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Filing a lawsuit will allow you to hold the federal government accountable for damage it has caused you or a loved one, while also providing real compensation for your medical expenses, suffering and loss. Contact us today for a free consultation.