Toxic Water At Military Camp Linked To Cancer In Marines

Toxic water that poisoned residents of Camp Lejeune last century may have a link to male breast cancer in those who lived on the base.

“The link comes from the latest in the series of government studies into the contaminated water. The whole case led to the Veteran’s Affairs and Obama administration to offer up more health coverage for veterans. It shows the exposure to the water possibly accelerated the disease for at least 30 Marines,” WNCT reported.

The drinking water was contaminated by trichloroethylene at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987, ABC News reported. A significant number of base residents developed cancer and other health problems.

The recent study, conducted by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, focused on 71 men with breast cancer and 373 men with other kinds of cancer to serve as a control group. The findings were as follows:

ATSDR’s study results suggested possible associations between exposure to PCE, DCE, and vinyl chloride at Camp Lejeune and male breast cancer. These results took into account age at diagnosis, race, and service in Vietnam. For PCE, risk increased slightly with increasing levels of exposure. Exposures to TCE, PCE, DCE, and vinyl chloride were also observed to possibly accelerate the onset of male breast cancer.

Breast cancer is rare among men. “Seven out of every 1,000 U.S. cases of breast cancer occur in men,” according to WNTC. Anjali Malik of Eastern Radiologists provided some insight on the diagnosis, per the news report.

“Men do have breast tissue the same as females,” Malik said. “It is in much smaller amounts, the amount can be increased in response to some medications and that would be something to discuss with their doctor because it can just be normal breast tissue. But men are also at risk of developing breast cancer.”