The Story of Camp Lejeune: Contaminated Drinking Water, Cancer Clusters, and the Struggle for Justice
The Story of Camp Lejeune: Contaminated Drinking Water, Cancer Clusters, and the Struggle for Justice, recorded 5/29/13.
About the call:
The Story of Camp Lejeune: Contaminated Drinking Water, Cancer Clusters, and the Struggle for Justice was presented by ACAT’s Alaska Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE-AK). Listen to this podcast for a discussion with special guest Jerry Ensminger, a retired Marine Master Sergeant of 24 years. Jerry’s family is one of hundreds of thousands who bathed, drank, and cooked with water contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals at the North Carolina Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune. He lost his nine year old daughter, Janey, to leukemia in 1985. Jerry has dedicated his life to helping other victims of the contamination at Camp Lejeune, many of whom are men who developed breast cancer. In his pursuit of justice, Jerry illuminates how current policies contribute to disease clusters and works for policies that will prevent contamination and protect community health. His story, along with others who suffered tragedy from the water at Camp Lejeune, has been documented in the film, “Semper Fi: Always Faithful.”
Presenter:
Jerry Ensminger, a former Marine Corps Sergeant and father who lost his daughter Janey to childhood leukemia. Years later, he investigated and uncovered a large cancer cluster including rare male breast cancer. An estimated 1 million people may have been exposed to toxic groundwater contamination at Camp Lejeune over several decades. Read more.
Presentations:
- If available, presentation slides will be posted here before the call on 5/29/13.
Resources:
- Website for Semper Fi Always Faithful, the film
- Semper Fi Always Faithful is available for streaming on Netflix.
- Contamination at Camp Lejeune
- Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry
Related Actions:
Petition Congress to support the Safe Chemicals Act of 2013
Related Events:
Jerry Ensminger’s Alaska Cancer Awareness Tour and Semper Fi Always Faithful film showings.
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