Camp Lejeune veterans had 70% higher rate of Parkinson’s disease: Study
Mike Brest
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U.S. service members who served at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, decades ago are much more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease than their counterparts who were stationed elsewhere, according to a study published Monday.
Troops stationed at the North Carolina base from 1975 to 1985 for as little as three months were 70% more likely to suffer Parkinson’s disease, due to water contaminated with trichloroethylene and other volatile organic compounds, according to a new study conducted by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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The study, which included more than 300,000 veterans, compared Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendleton, California, which did not have contaminated water, while researchers also looked at the same group of veterans’ health records from January 1, 1997, until February 17, 2021, to see who developed Parkinson’s or other diseases. It did not include family members who lived on the base as well.
Chemicals leaked into the water supply from an off-site dry cleaning store in the area, but officials did not discover the toxicity of the water until 1982, almost 30 years after it began, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The findings are the newest confirmation of the significant effects of the toxic water at the base from the early 1950s to the late 1980s.
The VA started processing Camp Lejeune claims in 2010, and in 2017, it was expanded to include family members. The Department of Veterans Affairs has Parkinson’s disease listed as a presumptive condition for veterans who served at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days from 1953 to 1987 and were not dishonorably discharged.
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These findings could also provide new fodder for dozens of civil lawsuits pending against the government for the hazardous conditions at the base.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry also notes that individuals who drank the contaminated water have an increased risk of various types of cancers including that of the kidney, multiple myeloma, and leukemias.