After graduating from Florida State University with a journalism degree, William J. P. Smith, Jr. served in the USMC from 1956 until 1959, stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC, the majority of the time with the Globe as sports editor and acting editor of the largest Corps newspaper at the time. While there, he married, residing at the trailer park on the base and later in Midway Park, while fathering two girls.

In 1994, Bill was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had a radical modified mastectomy with 30 lymph nodes removed from his left side. He was treated with Tamoxifin for five years, and has had no reoccurance. It should be noted that there was no history of any kind of cancer in the Smith family. His former wife and two girls have had no symptoms of the disease.

On behalf of women, Bill has been a fund raiser and is the subject of two books, Living with Breast Cancer, the Story of 39 Women and One Man by Perry Colemore and Lisa Adelsberger, and Messages from Somewhere, Inspiring Stories of Life After 60 by Harriet May Savitz. He has also written an autobiographical screenplay on his experience. The irony of all of this is that Bill was part of the team at Xerox Corporation that introduced xeroradiography for the early detection of breast cancer in 1969 at Hutzel Hospital in Detroit. Every once in a while, he takes the press kit from his library shelf and shares it with his students, who find it hard to believe that men can contract the horrific disease.

Today, Bill resides in Tallahassee, FL with his wife Kathy, teaches at FSU and runs an integrated marketing communications consultancy, Huckleberry Finn Tomorrow.

• What are the odds of finding 4 cases of male breast cancer from the same contaminated military base?
• How many other military men have developed breast cancer?

Poisoned at Camp LeJeune, snookered by Uncle Sam

Bill Berlow
Associate Editor

Mike Partain, son and grandson of Marine Corps veterans, grew up steeped in traditional American values — a rock-solid Reagan Republican whose life, even before birth, began among the few, the proud, at Camp LeJeune, N.C.

But for the past year, the 40-year-old Tallahassee insurance claims adjuster's faith in his government has been shaken to its core.

He'd always assumed that Uncle Sam, first and foremost, had the health and welfare of U.S. citizens at the top of his priority list — especially if they'd worn the uniform.

Now he's much less sure.

Partain's crisis of doubt began a year ago, when his wife gave him "a hug that changed my life." She found a lump, which turned out to be a cancerous tumor. A 14-inch surgical scar where Partain's right breast used to be is the physical evidence of his breast cancer.

Less obvious is the psychological scar — both as a cancer survivor still undergoing treatment and as one who feels his government betrayed a trust.

(more)

Not long after he learned he had cancer, Partain found out that his recurring rash since birth and his breast cancer — rare among men, particularly those with no family history of the illness — probably stemmed from his exposure during fetal development and the first year of his life to water contaminated with tetrachloroethylene, a solvent used in dry cleaning.

Just two months after Partain's wife felt the lump, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry acknowledged that Marines and their families who between 1957 and 1987 lived in the LeJeune neighborhood where his family lived, drank water contaminated with extremely high levels of the carcinogenic chemical.

Partain and a network of former LeJeune residents who believe their serious health problems are due to the poisoning point out, however, that the government first knew of the contamination in the early 1980s — but did little or nothing to let the former Marines and their families know they were at risk.

"At this time last year, I was dying and I didn't know," Partain said. "The government knew I was dying and didn't tell me. That burns me up."

The LeJeune families can't sue the feds, since the government hasn't waived its sovereign-immunity protection. The military, meanwhile, is protected by the Ferris Doctrine, a 1950s-era ruling that protects the armed services from legal action by the men and women who serve — the idea being that if a soldier was wounded in battle because of a commanding officer's dumb decision, the country would be worse off if the government had to battle personal-injury lawyers as well as foreign enemies.

I first met Partain in the fall of 2006, several months before his diagnosis. He was the adjuster for an insurance claim we filed. A former teacher from Winter Haven, where he grew up, he and I talked of his deep regret about having to give up teaching to support his wife and four children. That conversation even helped inspire a column about ex-teachers in November of that year.

Last year, after he told me his illness motivated his involvement in a crusade to reveal the truth behind the LeJeune environmental debacle, the Tallahassee Democrat reported his story on July 9, a few weeks after a congressional hearing on the LeJeune families.

A congressional investigation is still under way, and Partain has gotten help from U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, who called Partain's story and that of other LeJeune families "deeply troubling, to say the least."

Boyd's office, which has tried to navigate the federal and military bureaucracies for Partain, said he is one of seven constituents in the congressman's North Florida district who are seeking more information related to the LeJeune contamination.

Now Partain reluctantly acknowledges that he's an activist, a word he's still not comfortable with because of his conservative upbringing and beliefs.

When I likened the experience of the LeJeune Marine families to military victims of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, Partain agreed.

"Defend, deny and delay," he said, describing the government's strategy in the face of claims that Agent Orange was responsible for a slew of veterans' illnesses. "And that's what they're doing to us."

Partain (strashni@comcast.net) was to share his story last night with vets at the American Legion post on Lake Ella. Even though he doesn't realistically expect compensation from the government, it's part of his personal commitment to spread the word about those exposed to the poison, estimated to number upwards of a million Americans.

It's one more example of a government's betrayal — always shocking, but, sadly, no longer surprising and, as Partain says, quickly forgotten.

(less)

The Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water site in Aberdeen, North Carolina has been proposed for addition to EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL) of hazardous waste sites. It is one of six hazardous waste sites to be proposed for addition to the NPL, while twelve sites nationally are being added to the list.

The Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water site is about 1 acre in size and located on highway Route 211 in Aberdeen, Moore County, N.C. Powdered Metal Products (PMP) manufactured precision machine parts at the facility from 1980 until 1995. The operation utilized a trichloroethene (TCE) dip-vat as part of the manufacturing process. During the investigation of ground water contamination at the Geigy Chemical Corporation NPL site in 1990, which is located just on the other side of State Route 211, TCE, lead and pesticide contamination was detected in numerous private wells along Crestline Lane and Route 211. Investigations have identified contaminated soils in the vicinity of the former TCE dip-vat utilized by PMP as the source of TCE contamination in the ground water.

Trichloroethene also was detected in the town’s municipal water supply wells No. 5 and No. 9, according to an EPA report [PDF]. The level of the chemical exceeded the federal Safe Drinking Water Act maximum contaminant level.

The report said the town took the wells offline for some time and is now blending water from those wells with water from other municipal wells to reduce the trichloroethene levels.

The EPA provided municipal water supplies to 56 residences and businesses in the area, according to the agency.

Anderson Pangia & Associates, together with liason counsel Kevin Persio, continues to aggressively prosecute cases on behalf of those injured as a result of the water contamination at Camp Lejeune. However, due to limited resources and the need to focus on cases best positioned to test the legal and scientific issues in the litigation, please note that NEITHER ANDERSON, PANGIA NOR MR. PERSIO ARE ACCEPTING NEW CAMP LEJEUNE CASES AT THIS TIME. Please check this website periodically as this status may change. Thank you for your patience.

SEC. 315. NOTIFICATION OF CERTAIN RESIDENTS AND CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES AT CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, OF EXPOSURE TO DRINKING WATER CONTAMINATION.

(a) Notification of Individuals Served by Tarawa Terrace Water Distribution System, Including Knox Trailer Park- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Navy shall make reasonable efforts to identify and notify directly individuals who were served by the Tarawa Terrace Water Distribution System, including Knox Trailer Park, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, during the years 1958 through 1987 that they may have been exposed to drinking water contaminated with tetrachloroethylene (PCE).

(b) Notification of Individuals Served by Hadnot Point Water Distribution System- Not later than 1 year after the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) completes its water modeling study of the Hadnot Point water distribution system, the Secretary of the Navy shall make reasonable efforts to identify and notify directly individuals who were served by the system during the period identified in the study of the drinking water contamination to which they may have been exposed.

(c) Notification of Former Civilian Employees at Camp Lejeune- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Navy shall make reasonable efforts to identify and notify directly civilian employees who worked at Camp Lejeune during the period identified in the ATSDR drinking water study of the drinking water contamination to which they may have been exposed.

(d) Circulation of Health Survey-

(1) FINDINGS- Congress makes the following findings:

(A) Notification and survey efforts related to the drinking water contamination described in this section are necessary due to the potential negative health impacts of these contaminants.

(B) The Secretary of the Navy will not be able to identify or contact all former residents and former employees due to the condition, non-existence, or accessibility of records.

(C) It is the intent of Congress that the Secretary of the Navy contact as many former residents and former employees as quickly as possible.

(2) ATSDR HEALTH SURVEY-

(A) DEVELOPMENT-

(i) IN GENERAL- Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the ATSDR, in consultation with a well-qualified contractor selected by the ATSDR, shall develop a health survey that would voluntarily request of individuals described in subsections (a), (b), and (c) personal health information that may lead to scientifically useful health information associated with exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE), PCE, vinyl chloride, and the other contaminants identified in the ATSDR studies that may provide a basis for further reliable scientific studies of potentially adverse health impacts of exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.

(ii) FUNDING- The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to provide from available funds the necessary funding for the ATSDR to develop the health survey.

(B) INCLUSION WITH NOTIFICATION- The survey developed under subparagraph (A) shall be distributed by the Secretary of the Navy concurrently with the direct notification required under subsections (a), (b), and (c).

(e) Use of Media To Supplement Notification- The Secretary of the Navy may use media notification as a supplement to direct notification of individuals described under subsections (a), (b), and (c). Media notification may reach those individuals not identifiable via remaining records. Once individuals respond to media notifications, the Secretary will add them to the contact list to be included in future information updates.

 

The topography and geology of the area where the contaminated wells were found suggest that the contamination may not be related to the CTS site, said David Dorian, on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency.

“I don’t think that at this point in time there is adequate data to say anything definite about the source,” Dorian said. “We shouldn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that this is linked to CTS. Further investigation is warranted.”

The N.C. Division of Environment and Natural Resources plans to conduct more soil sampling near the contaminated wells to determine the contamination source, said Harry Zinn, an environmental engineer with the state’s superfund division.

“It’s not totally outside the realm of possibility that there is another source in the vicinity,” he said.

Of the 66 wells sampled, one active well showed the presence of Trichloroethylene (TCE) in excess of EPA's Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL), the level established to be protective of human health. The well is located approximately three-fourths of a mile northeast of the site. The sampling also detected trace quantities of cis-1,2-Dichlorethylene, a breakdown product of TCE, below the MCL. EPA provided bottled water to the affected residence and re-tested the well in question. The second set of sampling confirmed the presence of TCE at the level indicated by the original testing.

NCDENR also identified all active residential wells in the immediate area of the contaminated well. On January 8, 2008, NCDENR tested eight wells not previously tested during the November and December sampling events. Of the eight wells, one well, located immediately east of the contaminated well, contained TCE below the MCL. No contaminants were detected in the other five wells.

The latest round of testing came in response to state testing in August that found levels of the industrial solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, in areas around the former plant had not significantly decreased as a result of cleanup efforts at the site, which removed more than 1,600 pounds of the solvent from soil underneath the building in a little over a year of operation.

The University first committed to cleaning the area in 2003, when it signed a voluntary agreement with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The cleanup is expected to cost about $4.5 million and should be finished by the end of the summer. It will not affect the airport's operation, said Larry Daw, an environmental specialist for UNC's Department of Environment, Health and Safety.

[...]

UNC used the site from 1973 to 1979 to dispose of lab chemical waste generated by the campus and what was then N.C. Memorial Hospital. Although it has since been outlawed, burying waste was permissible under state laws at the time.

"It was a common practice in those days to dispose of waste in that manner," Daw said. "After that time period, there were some new laws coming into effect."

EPA to Hold Public Meeting for Mill’s Gap Groundwater Contamination Site in Skyland, N.C.

Release date: 01/14/2008

Contact Information: Dawn Harris-Young, (404) 562-8421, harris-young.dawn@epa.gov

(Atlanta, Ga. – Jan. 14, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a public meeting on Thursday, January 31, 2008 regarding current activities at the Mill’s Gap Groundwater Contamination site in Skyland, N.C. EPA, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and Buncombe County Health Center officials will provide information and answer questions about recent sampling related to the site and an enforcement update.

The public meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Skyland Fire Department, 9 Miller Road, Skyland, N.C. Community members interested in obtaining additional information are encouraged to contact Sherryl A. Carbonaro, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator, at (678) 575-7355.

The site is located off Mills Gap Road, approximately one mile east of Skyland, in Buncombe County, N.C. and consists of approximately nine acres of maintained grounds containing a large, single-story building. In 1952, IRC, Inc. (IRC) bought the land and constructed the building which was used for its electroplating operations. In 1959, IRC sold the property to CTS, Inc (CTS). From 1959 to 1986, CTS operated an electroplating facility at the site. In 1987, Mills Gap Road Associates (MGRA) purchased the site and is the current owner. Environmental sampling has indicated the subsurface beneath the former plant is contaminated with the chemical compound trichloroethylene (a.k.a. trichloroethene or TCE) as well as petroleum products. In 1999 TCE was discovered in nearby springs and one residential drinking water well. This past December, EPA and DENR commenced more extensive sampling that included expanded residential well sampling and vapor intrusion sampling at homes in close proximity to the site.

ATTENTION: A media availability session will be held at the Skyland Fire Department, 9 Miller Road in Skyland, N.C. from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 31, 2008. Officials will be available to answer media questions concerning current activities underway at the site. This arrangement will allow for the public to use the entire public meeting to get information and have their questions answered.

Amend the Safe Water Drinking Act to protect the health of susceptible populations, including pregnant women, infants, and children, by requiring a health advisory, drinking water standard, and reference concentration for trichloroethylene vapor intrusion, and for other purposes.

This is travesty. People who are willing to give their lives for their country deserve better. At the very least, they should be guaranteed a certain quality of life that includes safe drinking water.

• The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten
• THE STAND

NEWS RELEASE

Committee on Energy and Commerce
Rep. John D. Dingell, Chairman

For planning purposes: June 8, 2007

Contact: Jodi Seth 202-225-5735

MEDIA ADVISORY:

Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Hearing on Contaminated Drinking Water at Camp Lejeune

The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing on Tuesday, June 12, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2322 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled Poisoned Patriots: Contaminated Drinking Water at Camp Lejeune.

The purpose of this hearing is to examine issues arising from the extensive, high-level contamination of drinking water at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. This is the first of a series of hearings the Subcommittee plans to hold on environmental problems at Department of Defense (DOD) facilities.

The hearing will include testimony from former Marine Corps residents of Camp Lejeune who, along with their families, drank the contaminated water, cooked their food in it, and bathed in it. The Subcommittee will also receive testimony from the Government agencies involved in dealing with the contamination, assessing the adverse health effects, and investigating allegations of criminal violations of Federal law, including the Marine Corps, the Department of the Navy, ATSDR, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

WITNESS LIST

Panel I

Mr. Jerome Ensminger
North Carolina

Dr. Mike Gros
Texas

Mr. Jeff Byron
Ohio

Panel II

United States Marine Corps
Major General Robert C. Dickerson, Jr.
Commanding General
Accompanied by Ms. Kelly A. Dreyer
Environmental Restoration Program Manager
United States Navy

Ms. Pat Leonard Director
Office of The Judge Advocate General
Claims, Investigations, & Tort Litigation (Code 15)
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Department of Health and Human Services

Thomas Sinks, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
National Center for Environmental Health/ATSDR
Accompanied by Frank Bove, Sc.D.
Senior Epidimiologist
and
Morris Maslia, P.E.
Environmental Engineer

In the early 1980s, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were discovered in some of the water systems serving housing areas on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Exposure to certain VOCs may cause adverse health effects, including cancer. In 1999, the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) began a study to examine whether individuals who were exposed in utero to the contaminated drinking water are more likely to have developed certain childhood cancers or birth defects. ATSDR has projected a December 2007 completion date for the study. The National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2005 required GAO to report on past drinking water contamination and related health effects at Camp Lejeune. In this report GAO describes (1) efforts to identify and address the past contamination, (2) activities resulting from concerns about possible adverse health effects and government actions related to the past contamination, and (3) the design of the current ATSDR study, including the study's population, time frame, selected health effects, and the reasonableness of the projected completion date. GAO reviewed documents, interviewed officials and former residents, and contracted with the National Academy of Sciences to convene an expert panel to assess the design of the current ATSDR study.

Efforts to identify and address the past drinking water contamination at Camp Lejeune began in the 1980s, when Navy water testing at Camp Lejeune detected VOCs in some base water systems. In 1982 and 1983, continued testing identified two VOCs--trichloroethylene (TCE), a metal degreaser, and tetrachloroethylene (PCE), a dry cleaning solvent--in two water systems that served base housing areas, Hadnot Point and Tarawa Terrace. In 1984 and 1985 a Navy environmental program identified VOCs, such as TCE and PCE, in some of the individual wells serving the Hadnot Point and Tarawa Terrace water systems. Ten wells were subsequently removed from service. Department of Defense (DOD) and North Carolina officials concluded that on- and off-base sources were likely to have caused the contamination. It has not been determined when contamination at Hadnot Point began. ATSDR has estimated that well contamination at Tarawa Terrace from an off-base dry cleaner began as early as 1957. Activities related to concerns about possible adverse health effects began in 1991, when ATSDR initiated a public health assessment evaluating the possible health risks from exposure to the contaminated drinking water. The health assessment was followed by two health studies, one of which is ongoing. While ATSDR did not always receive requested funding and experienced delays in receiving information from DOD for its Camp Lejeune-related work, ATSDR officials said this has not significantly delayed their work. Former residents and employees have filed about 750 claims against the federal government. Additionally, three federal inquiries into issues related to the contamination have been conducted--one by a Marine Corps-chartered panel and two by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Members of the expert panel that the National Academy of Sciences convened generally agreed that many parameters of ATSDR's current study are appropriate, including the study population, the exposure time frame, and the selected health effects. ATSDR's study is examining whether individuals who were exposed in utero to the contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune between 1968 and 1985 were more likely to have specific birth defects or childhood cancers than those not exposed. DOD, EPA, and HHS provided technical comments on a draft of this report, which GAO incorporated where appropriate. Three members of an ATSDR community assistance panel for Camp Lejeune provided oral comments on issues such as other VOCs that have been detected at Camp Lejeune, and compensation, health benefits, and additional notification for former residents. GAO focused its review on TCE and PCE because they were identified by ATSDR as the chemicals of primary concern. GAO's report notes that other VOCs were detected. GAO incorporated the panel members' comments where appropriate, but some issues were beyond the scope of this report.

EPA Vindicated on Deadly Widespread Contaminant
Written by Mike Magner
Thursday, 27 July 2006

The National Research Council has vindicated victims of one of the Defense Department's worst environmental problems. An expert panel of NRC scientists reported that trichloroethylene, the most common water contaminant in America, is more dangerous than earlier thought.

Today's report warned that the powerful solvent is a serious public health threat that needs stronger regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency.

"We need a new drinking water standard now, with no more delays," said Jerry Ensminger, a retired Marine drill instructor whose 9-year-old daughter Janey [pictured in original article] died of leukemia in 1985 after exposure to TCE in the water at Camp Lejeune.

[...]

The question now is whether the EPA will adopt the NRC recommendations and issue a final risk assessment for TCE, the first step toward tightening the drinking water limit for the chemical.

"I am skeptical about what this administration will do with these recommendations," said retired Marine Ensminger.

He told the NRC panel last year that it made no sense that the DOD, with more than 1,400 sites tainted by TCE, was allowed by the White House to challenge EPA's risk assessment.

"Here we have the EPA that was created by the government to protect our environment and our citizens from pollution being second-guessed by the world's largest polluter, the U.S. Department of Defense!" he told the panel.

Welcome to Form95Help.com, designed to offer you information and assistance with filing a claim for injury, death or potential future illnesses that may have been caused by being exposed to the toxic water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Anyone, whether you were in the military or not and regardless of whether you lived on the base, should file a claim to protect your interest if you were exposed to the highly toxic waters of camp Lejeune prior to 1986. You can also file a claim on behalf of a relative who died and had any illness related to the contaminated waters of Camp Lejeune.

Your claim must be filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) if you intend on seeking money damages. The first step is to complete and file a properly completed Form 95 claim. Form 95 claims are routinely denied on all sorts of technical grounds so it is extremely important that you have your claim reviewed by an attorney. This review can take place even if you have already filed a claim to see if any amendments need to be made. Failure to file a Form 95 in a timely manner will bar you from seeking damages against the United States Military.

Remember, never settle a case without having it reviewed by an experienced FTCA lawyer. There is no dollar limitation on liability under the FTCA and once you agree to settle your claim, your claim is over even if the amount you received was unfair.

Capitol Hill has become a second home to Jerry Ensminger. The retired marine drill sergeant says he's still fighting for the rights of Americans.

Ensminger: "The Marine Corps has a motto -- 'Semper Fidelis.' That's Latin for always faithful."

But Ensminger and the Marine Corps are now pitted against each other.

Ensminger: "Unfortunately, I found out not only do they not live up to their motto. They won't take care of their own unless you force them to."

The battle is over water -- water that was contaminated at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The bad wells were shut down by early 1985. The problem came from a dry cleaning chemical called tetrachloroethylene and a metal degreaser called trichloroethylene.

Simms: "We wanted to visit Camp Lejeune. Our request was denied. The Marine Corps says the contamination has been widely publicized since 1984 when it was discovered and it's an old story. But Ensminger and others couldn't disagree more."

They believe thousands of people could now be ill and Ensminger wants the Marine Corps to admit there's a link. He's trying to force the Corps to notify thousands of people who lived or worked at the base between 1968 and 1985. And he says the Department of Veterans Affairs should be providing health benefits to people like Nick Geiger of Baltimore.

Geiger: "I just feel like I'm getting kicked in the teeth by the government I served... They're waiting for us to either get fed up with it and go away or gradually die off so they don't have to pay the claims."

Ensminger: "I swore I'm not going to let these people get away with this... When you pat me in the face with a shovel and blow taps over me. I said that's when I'll stop this fight or until you do what's right."

SEC. 352. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES STUDY ON HUMAN EXPOSURE TO CONTAMINATED DRINKING WATER AT CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA.

(a) STUDY REQUIRED.

(1) IN GENERAL. Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Navy shall enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a comprehensive review and evaluation of the available scientific and medical evidence regarding associations between pre-natal, child, and adult exposure to drinking water contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) at Camp Lejeune North Carolina, as well as other pre-natal, child, and adult exposures to levels of trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene similar to those experienced at Camp Lejeune, and birth defects or diseases and any other adverse health effects.

(2) ELEMENTS. In conducting the review and evaluation, the Academy shall review ,and summarize the scientific and medical evidence and assess the strength of that evidence in establishing a link or association between exposure to trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene and each birth defect or disease suspected to be associated with such exposure. For each birth defect or disease reviewed, the Academy shall determine, to the extent practicable with available scientific and medical data, whether---

(A) a statistical association with such contaminant exposures exists; and

(B) there exist plausible biological mechanisms or other evidence of a causal relationship between contaminant exposures and the defect or disease.

(3) SCOPE OF REVIEW. In conducting the review and evaluation, the Academy shall include a review and evaluation of--

(A) the toxicologic and epidemiologic literature on adverse health effects of trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, including epidemiologic and risk assessment reports government agencies;

(B) recent literature reviews by the National Research Council, Institute of Medicine, and other groups;

(C) the completed and on-going Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry (ATSDR) studies on potential trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene exposure at Camp Lejeune; and

(D) published meta-analyses,

(4) PEER REVIEW. The Academy shall obtain the peer review of the report prepared as a result of the review and evaluation under applicable Academy procedures.

(5) SUBMITTAL The Academy shall submit the report prepared as a result of the review and evaluation to the Secretary and Congress not later than 18 months after entering into the agreement for the review and evaluation under paragraph (1).

(b) NOTICE ON EXPOSURE

(1) NOTICE REQUIRED. Upon completion of the current epidemiological study by the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, known as the Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds in Drinking Water and Specific Birth Defects and Childhood Cancers, United States Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune North Carolina, the Commandant of the Marine Corps shall take appropriate actions, including the use of national media such as newspapers, television, and the Internet, to notify former Camp Lejeune residents and employees who may have been exposed to drinking water impacted by trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene of the results of the study.

(2) ELEMENTS. The information provided by the Commandant of the Marine Corps under paragraph (1) shall be prepared in conjunction with the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry and shall include a description of sources of additional information relating to such exposure, including, but not be limited to, the following:

(A) A description of the events resulting in exposure to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejuene.

(B) A description of the duration and extent of the contamination of drinking water at Camp Lejeune.

(C) The known and suspected health effects of exposure to the drinking water impacted by trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene at Camp Lejeune.

The amendment still must survive a conference negotiation between Senate and House members and then must be signed into law by President Bush.

Several folks have asked me about next steps. A thank-you note to Greg Riels of Dole's staff might be a good idea. Without Dole's support, the provision would not have been enacted by the Senate. Equally important, Dole will need to strongly support the provision to prevent it from being removed in conference with the House. You might also consider contacting the "conferees" from the Senate and House that will meet to reconcile the competing versions of the bill. They have not yet been named, so keep searching in Google News so you don't miss it.