A federal health agency no longer stands by its report about the effects of water contamination at Camp Lejeune.
The 1997 public health assessment by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, or A.T.S.D.R., found that adults who drank the water did not have a significantly higher risk of cancer.
On Tuesday, the A.T.S.D.R. pulled the report off its website to redo the study.
As of now, the validity of its 102-page health assessment published almost 12 years ago is in doubt.
Retired marine Jerry Ensminger had his own suspicions as he looked for answers after the death of his daughter from leukemia.
Ensminger was in the room for the announcement.
"This is something that I and several other people have been fighting for, for many, many years,” said retired marine Jerry Ensminger. “I'm elated."
The A.T.S.D.R. made the decision to disavow the report after determining it was inaccurate and important information was left out of the assessment.
First, researchers did not examine benzene.
The cancer causing chemical was found at the base, but did not get included in the assessment.
Second, the A.T.S.D.R. says researchers based some of their conclusions on the assumption that a known contaminated well was closed when, in fact, it was still in operation delivering water to marines and their families.
These factors prompted the agency to specifically redact Table Three in the health assessment about the potential health effects from being exposed.
The last column directly refers to the “cancer risk increase.”
All of the conclusions are either no, not likely or unknown.
The agency is no longer firm on that position.
"The Marine Corps, Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense have been resting their laurels on, on this faulty public health assessment for many years,” Ensminger said. “And, now it's gone."
Several lawsuits against the military are pending over the Camp Lejeune water contamination.
From here, the agency will try to reconstruct what happened by conducting a new drinking water pathway study.
The earliest those results could be ready is the summer of 2010.
It's estimated a million marines and their families could have been exposed to contaminated water from the 1950s until the wells at Camp Lejeune were closed in 1987.
Marine Corps headquarters released a response late Tuesday afternoon saying it's committed to the ongoing A.T.S.D.R. study.
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