On Oct. 27 and 28, victims of the largest, most lethal drinking water contamination in U.S. history will join Brockovich and other advocates with Camp Lejeune Legal in two Jacksonville town halls, according to a news release from the group.

Eligible victims have the same requirements as those seeking disability from the VA. Possible financial compensation includes lost wages, medical costs, pain and suffering, and wrongful death. Those already receiving Camp Lejeune disability benefits can still file a claim under the CLJA, but any awards from these claims will be offset by their current benefits provided by the VA, Medicare/Medicaid, or Social Security.

VA Undersecretary of Health Shereef Elnahal said Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022, that the VA will hold national events in November to rush new hires into their workforce and fill vacant jobs faster as the agency works to hire 50,000 workers yearly to keep up with the demands and trends affecting veterans’ health care. Elnahal took over the VA’s top health executive post in July after the job remained vacant for five years. (Department of Veterans Affairs)

The second report, released Friday, focuses on the reassessment of the registry. It assessed how the VA and the Defense Department collect and maintain the registry's data regarding a veteran's health effects due to toxic exposure and whether the registry has fulfilled or can carry out the purpose.

Back in the United States, the Department of the Navy announced in 2019 that it would not pay any claims to people who were exposed to toxins in the drinking water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, between 1953 and 1987. That decision came after a federal court had ruled that the Navy was not responsible for damages because the chemicals found in the water were not regulated until 1989.

“One of our big focuses now is on the children and grandchildren,” said Michael Bousher, the chair of the Florida Veterans Council. “We’ve noticed some of our children and grandchildren are coming down with diseases that are not really related to family history and things like that.”

Sherrod Brown hosted the roundtable and discussed the "Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022", which will secure access to the Department of Veteran Affairs' healthcare and disability benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxic chemicals. Some veterans who joined the roundtable were exposed to or affected by burn pits during their military service.

For PFOA, the advisory warns of concentrations greater than 0.004 parts per trillion. Samples from Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River showed PFOA contamination over 25,000 parts per trillion.

During WWII, only 5 percent of all military members were Black. Camp Lejeune was segregated from its founding. Black marines and sailors were stationed and received basic training at Montford Point, a segregated military base that is now part of Camp Lejeune. Living conditions there were unhygienic as the military facility was in a swampy area full of bugs. Black service members were only allowed to enter Camp Lejeune with a white marine, and once there, they regularly experienced racism.

Veterans have long dealt with a benefit offset when pursing medical malpractice claims against the Department of Veterans Affairs. You cannot collect twice for the same injury under Federal Tort Claims Act and 38 USC § 1151 for benefits. Camp Lejeune veterans and many civilians need to be aware of possible offset issues that may arise if their lawsuit is successful under the new law.

In a statement, the defense department said it provides civilians with advisers to help navigate the injury compensation process but acknowledged their health is more difficult to track because they use private medical providers for most of their care.

Environmental racism has been rising because of globalization and capitalism, which encourage people whose businesses create pollution to accumulate financial profit at the expense of disenfranchised communities' health. However, a lesser-known contributor to environmental racism is the military. The very people who pledged to defend our country and the safety of our citizens have made some reckless decisions, one of the most recent being the clandestine incineration of over 20 million pounds of AFFF waste.

The chemical tetrachloroethylene or PCE is carcinogenic. This potentially life-threatening effect was discovered after a study found that people who had lived near a dry cleaning facility while they were growing up had double the odds of developing cancer. Now, many are trying to determine if PCE can cause cancer in humans as well. The answer is yes and no, depending on where you live and what you do with the chemical.

The VA plans to start screening patients for environmental exposures during service in the armed forces, including the Gulf War and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. McLain said this screening will happen periodically as part of a veteran’s regular annual screening.

The PACT Act is one of the largest health and benefit expansions in American history. It recognizes toxic exposure as a “cost of war” by addressing the full range of issues affecting toxic-exposed veterans, ensuring generations of veterans who suffer from toxic exposure-related conditions get the benefits and care they’ve earned. This new law also expands and extends eligibility for VA health care for veterans with toxic exposures and veterans of the Vietnam era, Gulf War era, and post-9/11 era.

So Washington responded with a bill extending insurance “eligibility” to the people who fell ill from drinking this water. The words “medical care” did not appear anywhere in the bill. There were no provisions for who would provide care or where and when care could be attained. The afflicted were only granted additional insurance benefits.

Some veterans say the PACT Act is a step forward, but many are still being left behind.

The ad, which will run on connected TVs and on online platforms, features footage from Jon Stewart at a press conference where he hammered Senate Republicans for blocking the PACT Act, which would provide veterans with critical healthcare coverage. Johnson and Republicans voted against the bill in retaliation for Senators Schumer and Manchin announcing the Inflation Reduction Act.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough and Congressmember Salud Carbajal visited Santa Barbara’s Veterans Administration Clinic on Tuesday to talk with the medical staff about the new toxic exposure testing and treatment bill that President Biden signed on August 8. The cabinet secretary was touring clinics in Carbajal’s district — in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and the new Ventura clinic that opened on September 27 — to spread the word about the new program.

“It’s a fluid situation because they’re adding conditions and removing conditions or expanding conditions, sometimes on a weekly basis. So this is going to be a constant change,” he said, noting the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to start addressing claims at the start of 2023. “They’re still trying to work out the details, so as they work out the details, those will get passed down to the public.”