The toxic water crisis at
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, that left 750,000 Marines, sailors,
spouses and their families exposed to contaminated drinking water
between the 1950s and the 1980s may face a renewed investigation by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On May 10, the CDC posted a sources sought notice for a cancer incidence study on water contamination at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
The purpose of the study, according to the notice is to:
“…
assess whether there is an association between exposure to the
contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune and the incidence of
specific cancers in approximately 463,922 cohort members, the study will
require that vital status and cause of death for decedents be obtained
for 425,319 of the cohort members who had not died prior to January 1,
2009 before accessing cancer registry data from up to 55 state,
territorial, and federal cancer registries.”
The difference between this
proposed study, which is focused on cancer incidence, and previous
studies, which focused on mortality rates, is that a “cancer
incidence study would have a greater capability of evaluating cases of
highly survivable cancers than a mortality study.” A 2005 panel of scientists recommended that a cancer incidence “should receive the highest priority,” but one has yet to be conducted.
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