{"id":35057,"date":"2022-08-22T18:10:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T18:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=35057"},"modified":"2022-08-22T18:10:16","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T18:10:16","slug":"ucf-history-grad-helps-secure-justice-for-military-families-exposed-to-toxic-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/22\/ucf-history-grad-helps-secure-justice-for-military-families-exposed-to-toxic-water\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF History Grad Helps Secure Justice for Military Families Exposed to Toxic Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When Mike Partain <\/strong>\u201921MA<\/strong> was 39 years old, his wife hugged him and felt a lump in his chest.<\/p>\n

The lump didn\u2019t go away, so Partain scheduled a doctor\u2019s appointment. To his surprise, the doctor referred him for a mammogram.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember sitting in the waiting room, and they left me there for a while, thinking I was waiting for my wife,\u201d Partain says. \u201cI get back [to the exam room], and they give me a pink smock with flowers on it. The nurse came in, and I looked at her and just knew something wasn\u2019t right. I could tell from the expression on her face.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe nurse came in, and I looked at her and just knew something wasn\u2019t right. I could tell from the expression on her face.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Partain met with a radiologist, who referred him to a surgeon for a biopsy. Two days later, Partain learned that he had male breast cancer. He underwent a right radical mastectomy to remove the 2 1\/2-centimeter tumor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospital said my risk of getting male breast cancer in the general population at my age was .005%,\u201d says Partain.<\/p>\n

\u201cMale breast cancer typically affects men who are 70 or older, who have the BRCA1 or 2 hereditary breast cancer markers \u2014 I don\u2019t have those \u2014 or who are of European Jewish descent, which I\u2019m not. I don\u2019t drink. I don\u2019t smoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the whole time I\u2019m wondering: \u2018What contest in hell did I win did I get breast cancer?\u2019 \u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The Truth About Camp Lejeune<\/h3>\n

A few weeks later, as Partain was preparing for chemotherapy, the phone rang. His father, a retired Marine and Vietnam veteran, urged him to turn on CNN.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp to that point, \u2018Camp Lejeune\u2019 meant nothing more than some words on my birth certificate,\u201d recalls Partain. \u201cIt\u2019s a Marine Corps base in Jacksonville, North Carolina. I was born there on January 30, 1968.\u201d<\/p>\n

That all changed as Partain watched retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger testify before Congress on CNN.<\/p>\n

Ensminger spoke about his daughter Janey, who was conceived at Camp Lejeune and died of leukemia at age 9. He testified that children of Marines born at Camp Lejeune between January 1968 and December 1985 may have been exposed to toxic chemicals in the base\u2019s drinking water, including tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride and benzene.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s the first time I had heard about Camp Lejeune, the first time that I realized that something bad had happened, and also the first time I realized why I had breast cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI about passed out,\u201d says Partain. \u201cThat\u2019s the first time I had heard about Camp Lejeune, the first time that I realized that something bad had happened, and also the first time I realized why I had breast cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine base on the East Coast, was established in 1942 to help train U.S. Marines for the beach landings that would be instrumental to winning World War II. Unfortunately, the Navy engineers who designed the base drew its water from a shallow aquifer that was polluted over several decades by leaking underground storage tanks, spills, drum disposal, and contaminants seeping into the ground from on-base units that cleaned military equipment.<\/p>\n

Three separate water distribution systems that historically supplied water to the majority of the base\u2019s family housing units were eventually found to be contaminated with volatile organic compounds. Tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, both carcinogens, were 20 and 280 times over acceptable levels, respectively.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that as many as 1 million people were exposed to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, making it one of the worst examples of water contamination in U.S. history.<\/p>\n