U.S. Senate passes bill to provide health care for Camp Lejeune water exposure

The U.S. Senate has approved a bill that will require the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide health care to veterans and their family members who have certain diseases and conditions as a result of exposure to well-water contaminated by human carcinogens at Camp Lejeune.

The Caring for Camp Lejeune Veterans Act is included in the Honoring America's Veterans Bill.

North Carolina Republican U.S. Senator Richard Burr wrote the Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act. He says, "This has been a long time coming, and unfortunately, many who were exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune over the years have died as a result and are not with us to receive the care this bill will provide. "While I wish we could have accomplished this years ago, we now have the opportunity to do the right thing for the thousands of Navy and Marine veterans and their families who were harmed during their service to our country. I am encouraged that the House will pass this bill quickly and it will go to the President's desk for his signature."

North Carolina Democrat U.S. Senator Kay Hagan said, “This bill will ensure that those who were exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune will receive the health care they need and deserve. I applaud the efforts of Chairman Murray and my colleague from North Carolina, Senator Burr, who has worked tirelessly on this issue. Since I joined the Senate, the issue of water contamination at Camp Lejeune has been close to my heart, and I have been working to help provide answers to veterans and their families who have lived or worked on the Marine Corps Base. The push for answers continues, but in the meantime, veterans and family members are suffering. Many need treatment today and cannot afford to wait while studies are completed. The Marines and their family members affected by this tragedy have sacrificed to keep this country safe. After decades of denial, this country owes it to them to ensure they are taken care of in their time of need.”

An estimated 750,000 people may have been exposed to probable and known human carcinogens in the base's water supply between the 1950s and 1980s. To date, this is the largest recorded environmental incident on a domestic Department of Defense installation. 

---- Jerald Terwilliger National Chairman American Cold War Veterans "We Remember" ---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

Asbestos and the U.S. Navy

This is a very important piece of information for anyone who

served in the U.S. Navy.

Please keep this, copy and take to your doctor to discuss your

possible exposure to asbestos, possible health problems, and

ask to be checked for Mesothelioma. 

Asbestos and the United States Navy

The recent post on this site discussing Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the development of Chinese military capacity has a couple of telling remarks in it that apply to military spending habits. He mentions the “cyclical view” of American military decline that has occurred among foreign nations many times, notably in the late 1970s. It is fair to say that the view of American military readiness is related to American military spending not only on new weapons systems, but on the maintenance of existing equipment and the numbers of men and women on active duty.

After each of the two World Wars U.S. military spending was reduced dramatically and U.S. interest in maintaining a large combat-ready military dropped to peacetime expectations. Korea and Vietnam changed that pattern in the military for the length of those conflicts, but military spending during non-combat years has always been focused on new systems and not upkeep. The result over the decades has been the accumulation of outmoded bases, facilities and in the case of the Navy, outmoded ships.

Asbestos and the World War II Navy

It is well known by now that asbestos exposure can cause cancer and the development of asbestosis, a progressive and destructive respiratory disease. It is also known that thirty percent of all asbestos related mesothelioma cancer victims have been veterans. And the majority of the veterans who were at risk for asbestos cancer are Navy veterans. Sailors and shipyard workers who served on and worked on World War II Navy vessels were exposed to asbestos in engine rooms, alongside boilers, from the miles of pipe on the ships, and from the insulation and fire protection materials used in ship construction.

Every ship commissioned by the Navy from 1930 to about 1970 was fitted with tons of asbestos insulation, the perfect material for Navy use because of its insulation and fire resistant properties. Sailors inhaled asbestos fibers from the insulation that covered boilers and pipes and that was used for gaskets and packing in pumps and valves. Thousands of them got sick.

Asbestos and the Cold War Navy

After it became clear that asbestos is a carcinogen the Navy was fairly proactive in cleaning up its ships and eliminating asbestos products from newly built craft as well as in existing Navy bases and shipyards. But cleaning up all that asbestos in all those ships and locations took years and for many Cold War veterans asbestos exposure was a common occurrence. The USS Enterprise still has an asbestos abatement team on board, an example of the health risks associated with vessels of that era.

Asbestos exposure doesn’t take its toll for decades after it occurs. The latency period for mesothelioma is forty years or more. For asbestosis it can be twenty to thirty years. So Cold War vets who were unknowingly exposed to asbestos during active duty may just now be getting sick. After decades of denial the VA has finally recognized asbestos related disease as possibly related to active duty. It’s not easy to prove: the military insists that you be able to demonstrate that asbestos exposure occurred during active duty.

That’s not easy after a lifetime of post-service jobs and careers. But if you are a Navy veteran suffering from an asbestos related disease, don’t think that because your service came after 1945 the asbestos threat in active Navy duty is unlikely. Asbestos use was so common and so pervasive that exposure in all military branches continued through the twentieth century.

Source:

Bob Hartzell is a freelance writer for AsbestosNews.com, a resource on health risks and hazards commonly linked to dangerous levels of asbestos exposure, such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Jerald Terwilliger

National Chairman

American Cold War Veterans

"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

Mesothelioma Cancer

Anyone who was exposed to Asbestos at anytime is subject to this disease.
Most ships built before about 1975 contained large amounts of asbestos. Just normal
duties exposed you, but if you were aboard during shipyard periods then it was even worse.

This might be of interest to anyone exposed to asbestos


My name is Carl Jewett and I’m the Veteran Liaison for the Mesothelioma Center (Asbestos.com); an organization devoted to assisting veterans through their application processes for VA benefits, and helping them obtain the maximum benefits for which they are entitled. I’m also the Executive Director of the Veterans Assistance Network, and a retired Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy. While I was browsing through a number of Veterans sites I came across your website and was very impressed by the information you have listed.

Countless veterans are currently suffering from life-threatening illnesses that are a result of exposure to asbestos, a material that was commonly used in hundreds of military applications, products, and ships primarily because of its resistance to fire. Unfortunately, asbestos-related diseases are not always recognized by the VA, which is why I’m reaching out to veterans -- in hopes of helping them win the rights to their benefits.

The Mesothelioma Center provides a complete list of occupations, ships, and shipyards that could have put our Veterans at risk for developing asbestos-related diseases. In addition, they have thousands of articles regarding asbestos and mesothelioma and they’ve even created a veterans-specific section on their website in order to help inform them about the dangers of asbestos exposure.

Because so many veterans visit your site, I thought that you may be interested in helping to educate our nation’s veterans about the dangers of asbestos exposure by linking to our website from your resources page at americancoldwarvets.org/links.html. Please let me know. I'm available by e-mail at carl.jewett “@” asbestos.com. With your help, we can save some lives. Thanks again.

Carl Jewett

Mesothelioma Center

Asbestos.com

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans, Inc.

Cold War's Deaths Still Being Counted

From ABout.com

Radioactive Fallout from nuclear tests spread across entire U.S.

From 1950 through 1963, thousands of ever-more powerful nuclear bombs exploded. You would think we would have noticed something like that, but the explosions were merely "tests" in "isolated" areas, like Nevada, U.S.A. No cities were blown away. Nobody died... until later.

On Feb. 28, 2002, USA Today reported on an unreleased federal study blaming fallout from worldwide nuclear bomb testing for at least 15,000 cancer-related deaths and more than 20,000 non-fatal cancers in U.S. residents born since 1951.

While some members of Congress have criticized the Department of Health and Human Services for delaying the release of the report begun in 1998, another study completed -- and released -- in 1997, showed how the 90 U.S. nuclear bomb tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) during the 1950s and 1960s spread radioactive iodine-131 fallout across the entire country.

The 1997 National Cancer Institute report, "Estimated Exposures and Thyroid Doses Received by the American People from Iodine-131 in Fallout Following Nevada Atmospheric Nuclear Bomb Tests," showed that depending on their age at the time of the tests, where they lived, and what foods they consumed, particularly milk, Americans were exposed to varying levels of I-131 for about two months following each of the 90 tests. Because I-131 accumulates in the thyroid gland, the report raised concerns that the fallout could eventually cause thyroid cancer in adults who were exposed as children.

Fact Sheet on Thyroid Cancer
Iodine-131 -- Thyroid Disease Glossary
Answers to Questions About Thyroid Cancer

According to the report, the thyroid of every person living in the U.S. during nuclear testing -- about 160 million people -- received an average does of about 2 rads of I-131, with maximum doses of up to 300 rads. By comparison, children undergoing a diagnostic thyroid scan in the 1950s received 200 to 300 rads. Today, a thyroid scan delivers from 0.4 to 4 rads to the thyroid.

The NCI report showed that, in general, persons living in states to the north and east of the Nevada test site received the highest doses. Midwestern states including Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri received particularly heavy doses.

US map with County-by-County I-131 Fallout Exposures

Executive Summary of NCI ReportDescribes the results in non-technical language, and lists the 24 U.S. counties with the highest average cumulative exposures from all 90 tests combined.
Interestingly, Nevada counties received relatively low doses. Scientists concluded that the force of the atomic blasts carried the I-131 so high into the atmosphere that it was carried by the jet stream completely over Nevada before settling in states to the north and east.

Most children aged 3 months to 5 years probably received three to seven times the average dose for the population in their county, because they drank more milk than adults, and because their thyroids were smaller. By contrast, most adults probably received two to four times less than the average county dose.

Estimated I-131 Dosage CalculatorDetermine an individual's estimated total thyroid dose of I-131 from each nuclear test or series of tests compiled by date of birth.

Testimony on Thyroid Exposure Received from Iodine-131The testimony of Dr. Richard D. Klausner, M.D. Director, National Cancer Institute National Institutes of Health U.S. Department of Health and Human Services before the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies October 1, 1997.

According to cancer researchers, persons exposed to the I-131 fallout would face an increased risk of contracting thyroid cancer at some time during their lifetimes. While thyroid cancer is typically rare and easily treatable, doctors estimated that I-131 fallout could result in an additional 120,000 cases and about 6,000 deaths.

At time of its release, NCI made it clear that their 1997 report did not attempt to measure fallout from nuclear testing conducted in the former Soviet Union or by U.S. tests in the Pacific.

According to USA Today, the unreleased HHS report will show that more fallout from Soviet testing than previously thought possible reached the United States. Chances are, says USA Today, the report will conclude that every person born in America since 1951 has been exposed to radioactive fallout from nuclear testing.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Vice Chairman
American Cold War Veterans, Inc
"We Remember"