WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency today banned all uses of the cancer-causing solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE.
For years, the Environmental Working Group has called for the ban, citing the devastating illnesses and deaths affecting military families and others who drank tap water contaminated with TCE. The Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina, is one of the most polluted on record, as shown by the harm it has caused.
Retired Marine Corps Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger, who was stationed for many years at the base, lost his daughter Janey, in 1985, at age nine from leukemia after she was exposed to toxic chemicals while living at Camp Lejeune.
Mike Partain, a son and grandson of Marine officers who was born at the base, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, at the age of 39. EWG has highlighted their criticism of the federal government’s inaction.
The following is a statement from Ensminger, backed by Partain:
Mike and I welcome this ban on TCE by the EPA. This is proof that our fight for justice at Camp Lejeune was not in vain.
The Camp Lejeune–contaminated drinking water issue has dragged on over the better part of 40 years, ever since TCE and other organic solvents were first documented in the base’s drinking water supply, in October 1980.
My daughter, Janey, was conceived at Camp Lejeune during the drinking water contamination and died of leukemia in 1985, at the age of nine. I first began my fight for justice in 1997 and was later joined by Mike Partain in 2007, who was also conceived at the base and diagnosed with male breast cancer at the age of 39.
We, along with the estimated one million Marines, their families and base employees exposed aboard the base from 1953-1987, welcome the news that the EPA has finally decided to implement a permanent ban on the organic solvent TCE. This dangerous synthetic organic solvent has a long, troubled history complicated by interference from the chemical manufacturing industry and their proponents, which has long delayed this needed outcome.
On September 28, 2011, the EPA first declared TCE a human carcinogen. But knowledge of toxicity to humans resulting from exposures to TCE first appeared in the 1930s. Dr. Carey P. McCord, a pioneer in the field of occupational health and a Chrysler corporation physician, raised the first concerns about TCE in his Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, article titled “Toxicity of Trichloroethylene” in 1932 – almost 100 years ago. His article was in response to what he termed as ‘increased promotional activities’ to expand the use of TCE in industry to include dry cleaning, pesticides, degreaser and bio solvent.
McCord warned that while manufacturers may find the use of TCE desirable, the resulting exposures would be a disaster for exposed workers.
Twenty years later, a second JAMA article by Dr. Edward J. McCormick said that TCE passed through the placenta in cattle who were exposed to TCE-treated soybean oil. He advised against the practice of using TCE-extracted soybean oil meal as a feed for animals utilized for human consumption.
Lastly, in a 1987 ruling, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington found that prior to 1950, TCE was generally known to be dangerous and poisonous. The court also noted that TCE was not fit to be consumed nor should it be in the water supply. Yet TCE was not finally properly classified as a human carcinogen until 24 years after the court decision. Why?
There exists a long history of political interference, supported by industry, of blocking the EPA’s ability to protect the environment and public health.
Mike and I were witness to one such episode as documented in the award-winning documentary “Semper Fi: Always Faithful.” In January 2009, we attended a National Academy of Sciences review of TCE’s grandfather chemical perchloroethylene, or perc, and the EPA’s efforts to study and develop regulation guidance for perc. We were the only members from the general public in attendance. The other attendees were representatives from perc's manufacturers and consumers who were all united in their criticism of the EPA’s process and work. They argued that the existing studies of perc’s risks were inconclusive, and more studies were needed.
As I stated in the film, ‘My intent for appearing here today is to ensure that science is allowed to do its work without human biases affecting the results. I can’t say that for many of the other special interest groups whose motivations are driven by the almighty dollar and others who are attempting to shirk their liabilities.’
I concluded, ‘I listened to everybody here, and while we fully admit that this is a carcinogen to rats and other animals, but yet we still just haven’t tweaked that thing to where we can say it is a carcinogen to humans, the benefit of the doubt looks like it is going to go to the chemical and not to protect public health. What is wrong with this picture?’
In many ways, Camp Lejeune has become the poster child for long-term exposures to TCE and other dangerous organic solvents. The base’s drinking water was contaminated with TCE and other solvents for over 34 years.
The highest recorded level of TCE was found at the base naval hospital in 1982 when a sample from the emergency room sink was found to have TCE at 1,400 parts per billion, or ppb. Another sample taken three years later found TCE at 1,148 ppb in the drinking water fountain of a base elementary school.
Subsequent health studies conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, or ATSDR, found increased mortality from cancer of the kidney, bladder, leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The ATSDR also found a link between the early onset of male breast cancer in the service members exposed to a TCE toxic solvent cocktail in the base’s drinking water.
The Veterans Benefits Administration in 2017 established a presumptive service connection for eight conditions found at Camp Lejeune. The occurrence of these diseases in the base’s exposed population at the base eerily echoes the EPA’s own research into the health effects resulting from exposure to TCE.
It is our sincere hope that in the future, the EPA will be allowed to continue to do its work unfettered by political interference initiated by proponents for the manufacturers and consumers of toxic chemicals.
The future of our children and the health of our country vastly outweighs the needs of the almighty dollar.
