Children Born At Camp Lejeune May Be At Risk Of Adult Onset Breast Cancer
Those who have questions about the origin of their disease should look to the time their parents spent at Camp Lejeune
Friday, November 11, 2022 - Male breast cancer is one of the rarest forms of cancer and accounts for less than 1 percent of all types of breast cancer. About one in five male breast cancer victims die from the disease. As rare as it is, male breast cancer is one of the presumptive diseases that the Veterans Administration (VA) lists as service-related. Marines stationed at Camp Lejeune, civilian workers, contractors, and their respective family members have developed breast cancer and other types of cancer in unusually large numbers from drinking Camp Lejeune tap water. The Marine Corps, Navy, and Department of Defense all acknowledge that leaky toxic waste disposal wells, weaponry, machinery cleaning solution, and firefighting foam all contaminated the Camp Lejeune water system with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and PFAS forever chemicals. The contamination was thousands of times greater than the amount thought to be safe prompting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to designate Camp Lejeune as a Super Fund. According to the EPA, being designated as a Superfund allows the EPA to come in and force the site to be cleaned up.
Mike Partain was born at Camp Lejeune and is an example of a family member who may have developed breast cancer later in life. If you were born at Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987 you may be at risk. Breast cancer has a latency stage of around ten to twenty years making it difficult to trace the source of the disease. Partain points out that his mother's drinking of Camp Lejeune water caused his rare condition as little else in his life was as probable. Anyone who was stationed at Camp Lejeune and developed breast cancer must understand the most likely source. According to WECT.com, "Partain lived life with many health complications, but it wasn't until after he was diagnosed with cancer as an adult that he found out what likely caused it all. I was diagnosed with male breast cancer at the age of 39, which is very rare for young men. Especially men who do not drink, do not smoke, or have the BRCA one or two markers, which I do not have. And shortly after my diagnosis and surgery, my father happened to turn on CNN and saw a story about Jerry Ensminger testifying to Congress about the children born in Camp Lejeune between January 1968 and December 1985. I then realized that I was one of those children, said Partain."
Partain has joined others and has been fighting for the passage of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act that allows certain individuals the right to file a Camp Lejeune Justice Act claim seeking lump-sum monetary compensation. Partain was one of the thousands of children born to women who were pregnant during their tenure at Camp Lejeune and drank the contaminated water. The Marine Corps and Navy knew about the water contamination and the health hazard drinking it posed and failed to warn all but a few then-current residents of the base with a one-off memo.
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