Former Colonel Sues Marine Corps Over Camp Lejeune Water Contamination

A veteran who served on the base in the late 50's is Lejeune's 65th male breast cancer victim.

At least 65 men who served at Camp Lejeune or lived there as a civilian, have developed male breast cancer.

(WASHINGTON D.C. McClatchy) - A man who served at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune for nearly two years in the 1950s has sued the federal government for $16 million, saying poisonous water at the base caused his cancer.

Joel P. Shriberg of Pinehurst, N.C., was diagnosed in 2004 with male breast cancer and had a radical mastectomy on his left breast. The cancer has since metastasized to his lung, according to the suit he filed last week in the U.S. District Court's Eastern District of North Carolina.

Shriberg is one of more than 65 men across the United States who've been diagnosed with male breast cancer after serving at Lejeune. He couldn't be reached for comment.

According to his lawsuit, he was a clerk with the 155th Howitzer Division from September 1957 through April 1959, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of colonel.

That was when, according to federal and state documents, poisons that included tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene and benzene contaminated Camp Lejeune's water system. The contamination lasted until the mid-1980s.

The contamination violated military standards that included Navy drinking water standards of 1946, the lawsuit claims. Special thanks to McClatchy Newspaper for covering this, please visit their link below for the rest of this story.

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