California reps ask US for brand spanking new water research at former base

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Two California congressmembers are asking the federal authorities to check whether or not there’s proof that potential poisonous and contaminated consuming water at Fort Ord could be tied to particular cancers and different ailments.

“Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to our servicemembers and their households,” stated Reps. Katie Porter and Jimmy Panetta in a letter to the director of the Company for Poisonous Substances and Illness Registry. “By conducting a brand new research at Fort Ord, we might assure that these harmed whereas serving our nation get the medical care they want.”

The request follows an Related Press report earlier this week about tons of of people that lived and served close to the Military base who’re involved that their well being issues could be tied to chemical compounds there.

In 1990, 4 years earlier than it started the method of closing as an lively army coaching base, Fort Ord was added to the Environmental Safety Company’s checklist of probably the most polluted locations within the nation. Included in that air pollution had been dozens of chemical compounds, some now identified to trigger most cancers, discovered within the base’s consuming water and soil.

The AP interviewed almost two dozen of those veterans and reviewed hundreds of pages of paperwork, and interviewed army, medical and environmental scientists.

There’s not often a option to immediately join poisonous publicity to a selected particular person’s medical situation. Certainly, the concentrations of the toxics are tiny, measured in elements per billion or trillion, far beneath the degrees of a direct poisoning. Native utilities, the Protection Division and a few within the Division of Veterans Affairs insist Fort Ord’s water is secure and all the time has been. However the VA’s personal hazardous supplies publicity web site, together with scientists and docs, agree that risks do exist for army personnel uncovered to contaminants.

Responding to AP’s report, a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee spokesperson stated its chair, Montana Democrat Jon Tester, believes the “VA ought to take this and any potential poisonous publicity amongst our army women and men significantly, and preserve working to offer a recent have a look at the potential for poisonous exposures at Fort Ord which can be inflicting antagonistic well being results in veterans.”

The issue isn’t just at Fort Ord. That is taking place all around the U.S. and overseas, nearly in every single place the army has set foot, and the federal authorities continues to be studying in regards to the extent of each the air pollution and the well being results of its poisonous legacy.

AP discovered the Military knew that chemical compounds had been improperly dumped at Fort Ord for many years. Even after the contamination was documented, the Military downplayed the dangers.

And ailing veterans are being denied advantages based mostly on a 25-year-old well being evaluation, which Porter and Panetta Friday stated wants an replace. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Company for Poisonous Substances and Illness Registry concluded in 1996 that there have been no seemingly previous, current or future dangers from exposures at Fort Ord.

However that conclusion was made based mostly on restricted information, and earlier than medical science understood the connection between a few of these chemical compounds and most cancers.

Congress has been weighing laws this month that may acknowledge some potential well being impacts from some army poisonous exposures, significantly burn pits. And the Wounded Warrior Challenge launched findings from a survey of about 18,000 registered members that discovered 98% of wounded veterans reported publicity to hazardous or poisonous substances throughout army service.