Thursday, June 16, 2022 - Passage of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act will open the gates for tens of thousands of marine veterans, civilian employees, and the families of both to file lawsuits seeking lump-sum monetary compensation for the negligence of the Defense Department. The DOD has known for decades that PFAS forever chemicals from using firefighting foam have leached into the local water table creating levels of cancerous compounds in the areas drinking water supply and failed to warn the populous. As devastating as the drinking water problems around Camp Lejeune is the communities surrounding hundreds of other military installations throughout the nation are experiencing similar health problems. PFAS tap water may be responsible for hundreds of thousands of cases of cancer and the deaths of young adults and also children. Pregnant mothers who drank PFAS-contaminated tap water have higher incidences of stillbirths, miscarriages, and children who died at an early age from childhood leukemia. In addition to suing the US government, municipalities are filing lawsuits against 3M corporation for failing to warn them that the firefighting foam they were exposed to polluted the tap water.
Each local firefighting station in the nation may have contaminated their local drinking water supplies with PFAS forever chemicals and caused an incalculable number of deaths by training with 3M's firefighting foam. One recent lawsuit was filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey alleging that companies have disregarded their environmental protection laws and knowingly destroyed the local groundwater and other natural resources belonging to the taxpayers of the state. AG Healy told EcoWatch.com, "For decades, these manufacturers knew about the serious risks highly toxic PFAS chemicals pose to public health, the environment, and our drinking water -- yet they did nothing about it. As a result of this deception, our municipalities are spending millions of dollars to provide safe drinking water to their residents. I am suing today to hold these manufacturers accountable, require them to pay the growing costs these communities are shouldering, and repair our state's precious natural resources that have been damaged by these illegal actions." The lawsuit identifies the companies that sold aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) also known as firefighting foam. According to EW, well-known companies like 3M, AGC Chemical Americas, Archroma U.S. Inc., The Chemours Company, and DuPont de Nemours Inc were named in the lawsuit. 3M and others are defending the lawsuit and many more similar ones by saying that it was the responsibility of the military, airports, and municipal firefighting stations to properly dispose of the foam after use. EW told readers that the leader of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts organization joined the AG in telling listeners that there is an epidemic of cancer among firefighters because of using the foam containing deadly PFAS forever chemicals. Incredibly, more than 125 public water systems servicing 86 communities in Massachusetts have been tested to show dangerously high levels of carcinogenic PFAS forever chemicals due to the improper disposal of firefighting foam.
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