Camp Lejeune, the US Marine Corps base established near Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1942, has been in the news lately based on potential toxin exposure to over a million military and civilian staff since 1953.

In 1982, the Marine Corps identified two of the eight water treatment plants on the base as being contaminated with industrial solvents, benzene, and other chemicals. The systems were shut down in early 1985, but the damage had already been done.

From August 1953 through the end of December 1987, people living or working in Camp Lejeune were exposed to this contaminated water, many on a daily basis.

With the chemicals identified in the water at Camp Lejeune, the US Department of Veterans Affairs has listed several diseases that they identify has having a presumptive connection to the contamination. A “presumptive” connection means that the VA presumes that the contamination caused one of the listed diseases.

These diseases include: Adult leukemia, Aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes, Bladder cancer, Kidney cancer, Liver cancer, Multiple myeloma, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and Parkinson’s disease.

In addition to these, military members and their families may also suffer from the following potentially compensable diseases: Breast cancer, Esophageal cancer, Female infertility, Hepatic steatosis, Leukemia, Lung cancer, Miscarriage, Myelodysplastic syndromes, Neurobehavioral effects, Renal toxicity, and Scleroderma.