Lawsuit Information Center
Our lawyers are handling Camp Lejeune cancer lawsuits in all 50 states. This page is about a particular type of cancer: multiple myeloma at Camp Lejeune. We look at how multiple myeloma is linked to contaminated water and our attorneys speculate about potential settlement amounts for these cancer lawsuits.
From the 1950s thru the late 1980s the water supply at the USMC base, Camp Lejeune in North Carolina was contaminated with alarmingly high levels of chemical solvents that have been linked to cancer. In the years since this was discovered, numerous public health studies have been done to determine what this contamination did to the health of the estimated 1 million people that were exposed to the water at Camp Lejeune.
These studies have identified clear evidence that exposure to the contaminated water at Lejeune caused an increased risk of multiple myeloma and other lymphohematopoietic cancers. Specifically, it is well understood that both benzene and trichloroethylene (TCE) – two toxins that contaminated the water at Camp Lejuene – cause multiple myeloma. There is evidence that another ubiquitous toxin at Camp Lejuene – perchloroethylene (PCE) – may also cause multiple myeloma.
So multiple myeloma claims will be very strong Camp Lejeune lawsuits with a high probability of a settlement offer. Unlike some other injuries in this litigation, the battlefield in a Camp Lejuene multiple myeloma lawsuit is more likely to be about if the settlement amount is enough money as opposed to whether the toxic water caused the disease.
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History of Lejeune Water Supply
Camp Lejeune is a huge Marine Corps training facility and base located near Wilmington, North Carolina. The base has been used by the Marine Corps since WWII. It contains barracks, family housing, schools, and other facilities and at any given time it is home to approximately 54,000 people.
For about 34 years, from August 1953 to December 1987, the drinking water supplied to Camp Lejeune residents and employees was corrupted with dangerously high levels of the chlorinated solvents perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE). The amount of PCE and TCE in the Lejeune water system was several thousand times above the maximum safe limits.
Studies have estimated that roughly 1 million people, including Marine personnel, families, and civilian employees, were exposed to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune over the years.
Multiple Myeloma
Multiple myeloma is a comparatively rare form of blood cancer that originates in white blood cells known as plasma cells. Plasma cells defend the body from infection by creating antibodies to identify and eliminate germs and other foreign invaders.
Multiple myeloma is not a very common type of cancer. Only about 34,000 cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year. The lifetime risk of getting multiple myeloma is less than 1%, putting it in the bottom 10% in terms of the highest-risk cancer types. The lifetime risk of being diagnosed with multiple myeloma for white males is estimated at 0.78%. Black Americans have approximately twice that risk. Like all blood cancer, treatment options for multiple myeloma are limited to chemotherapy. The overall 5-year survival rate for multiple myeloma is 55%.
Multiple myeloma is most common in the elderly. You do not see many multiple myeloma cases amount young adults. But Camp Lejeune-related multiple myeloma is more prevalent amount younger patients that the general population. With multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells begin to build up in the bone marrow and they eventually displace the normal, healthy blood cells and prevent them from creating antibodies. Instead, the cancerous plasma cells produce abnormal proteins that cause organ damage, including renal insufficiency, lytic bone lesions, and other complications. The latency period between exposure to the toxic water at Camp Lejeune and a multiple myeloma diagnosis appears to be between 5 and 15 years. This is not a scientific observation. It is based on the cases our Camp Lejeune lawyers have seen so far.
Risk Factors and Symptoms of Multiple Myeloma
The symptoms of multiple myeloma in individual cases are often highly varied. In many cases, patients with multiple myeloma may not notice any outward symptoms at all. When symptoms are present, however, they typically involve things such as bone pain (usually in the chest or spine), nausea, constipation, mental confusion, and fatigue.
There are a small handful of recognized risk factors for multiple myeloma. The top 2 risk factors are age and gender. Men are more likely to get multiple myeloma than women and anyone over the age of 60 is more likely to develop this disease compared to younger people. People of African decent are at an increased risk and so is anyone with a family history of multiple myeloma.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer, so it can be accurately diagnosed through blood testing. High levels of M proteins in the blood are the primary indicator of multiple myeloma. The presence of other proteins in the blood can also help determine what type and how aggressive the disease is. Urine analysis can also show the M proteins used to diagnose multiple myeloma. Sometimes doctors will also perform bone marrow.
Treatment options for multiple myeloma are similar to those for other types of blood cancer. Targeted drug therapies are used to attack cancer cells in the blood. Immunotherapy treatments are also employed to stimulate the body’s own immune system to attack the cancer cells. More traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation are also used in the treatment of multiple myeloma. Bone marrow transplants (also called stem cell transplants) are also an option for replacing non-viable bone marrow.
Health Studies Link Multiple Myeloma to Camp Lejeune Water Contamination
When the full extent of the water contamination at Camp Lejeune (and the apparent cover-up by the USMC) became public, the government initiated several massive public health studies. The goal of these studies was to figure out what impact the contaminated water at Lejeune had on the long-term health of those who were exposed to it.
Since 1991, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), which is part of the CDC, has been performing extensive research and health assessments of Camp Lejeune. This included advanced modeling of the estimated contamination levels in the Lejeune water systems going back decades.
The contamination and exposure modeling data compiled by the ATSDR has been utilized in epidemiologic studies of health effects on Camp Lejeune employees and residents. Various health outcome “endpoints” have been examined in these studies, including birth defects, adverse birth outcomes, cancer, and mortality rates.
One of the first major studies on the health impact of the Lejeune water came in 2009 when the National Research Council (NRC) released a report entitled Contaminated Water Supplies at Camp Lejeune: Assessing Potential Health Effects (NRC Report). The NRC Report concluded that there was sufficient evidence of an association between the Lejeune water and increased rates of blood cancers, specifically multiple myeloma.
In 2012, the Veteran’s Administration (VA) formed a committee (the “VA Committee”) of leading experts to review the available evidence and provide clinical guidance to the VA on what diseases and health conditions can be linked to the Lejeune water contamination. The VA Committee published official Clinical Guidance which conclusively found that multiple myeloma was one of 8 diseases that was connected to the water contamination at Lejeune.
In 2014, the ATSDR published the results of its long-term mortality and cancer incidence study for the Camp Lejeune population (the “ATSDR Study”). Just like the previous reports, the ATSDR study concluded that exposure to Camp Lejeune water caused a significant increase in the rate of multiple myeloma among Lejeune residents and employees.
The Government Understands That Benzene Exposure Causes Multiple Myeloma
The idea that benzene and other chemicals in drinking water can cause multiple myeloma is something the government has known for years. In 1987, OSHA reported in 29 CFR Part 1910, Occupational Exposure to benzene that “epidemiological studies demonstrate that benzene exposure can cause leukemia, multiple myeloma and perhaps other hemopoietic and lymphatic cancers. Aplastic anemia and several other blood diseases are known to be caused by benzene exposure.”
In 1988, OSHA advised that the delay of the emergency temporary standard to reduce the permissible exposure limit for benzene from 10 ppm to 1 ppm, measured as an 8-hour time-weighted average has resulted in an estimated additional 77 deaths from multiple myeloma.
The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry conducted extensive studies on the health effects of exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, including multiple myeloma. The ATSDR has found that individuals who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune and were exposed to contaminated water have an increased risk of developing multiple myeloma.
Benzene and Multiple Myeloma
Benzene, one of the 20 most commonly used chemicals in the United States and was ubiquitous at Lejeune, has a long history of being linked to myeloma. This connection was confirmed by two meta-analyses in 2011 and 2015. The link between benzene and myeloma is established using the Bradford Hill criteria. Other countries have also conducted research on the topic and published data, with a study from the Occupational Diseases Medical Advisory Board in Germany published in 2009 and South Korean studies appearing in 2014 and 2015. In 2010, the National Cancer Institute, 2008-2009 Annual Report, President’s Cancer Panel, “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk, What We Can Do Now?”, NCI reported there is strong evidence of a causal link between benzene and multiple myeloma.
Additional Studies Linking Multiple Myeloma to Solvents
In the public health studies on the Camp Lejeune population, there has been at least 1 other scientific study on the link between occupational exposure to chlorinated solvents (the type of chemicals in the Lejeune water) and multiple myeloma. In 2011 a study was published by Laura S. Gold, et al. in Occupational & Environmental Medicine entitled The Relationship Between Multiple Myeloma and Occupational Exposure to Six Chlorinated Solvents (the “Gold Study”).
The Gold Study looked at occupational exposure to TCE and PCE, primarily in the commercial dry cleaning industry. It found that exposure to these solvents resulted in significantly elevated risks for multiple myeloma compared to the general population. The Gold study concluded that there was clear causation between the category of chemicals known as organic solvents (or an association between an occupation or industry where organic solvents are commonly used) and an elevated risk of the occurrence or increased mortality from multiple myeloma.
New Law Allows Camp Lejeune Multiple Myeloma Lawsuit
Victims of the water contamination tragedy at Camp Lejeune have previously been blocked from bringing civil tort lawsuits for their injuries because of a strict statute of repose law in North Carolina. Various veterans’ groups have successfully lobbied Congress to address this injustice. Congress enacted a new federal law that will enable Camp Lejeune victims the right to bring claims for their injuries.
The Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA), which is a component of a larger veteran benefits bill called the Honoring Our Pact Act (PACT Act), was initially passed by the House in March. In June 2022, the Senate passed an amended version of the bill and sent it back to the House for approval.
The House objected to certain tax provisions that the Senate added to the bill, so on July 13 the House passed a revised version of the Senate bill. Now the bill is back to the Senate for approval again. The PACT Act is widely supported by both parties and it is expected to pass before the mid-term elections.
When the PACT Act (and CLJA) became law on August 10, 2022, the deadline to file a claim began. Camp Lejeune water victims have a window of at least 2-years from the date the statute was enacted to bring a multiple myeloma Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuit. The law expressly eliminates the North Carolina statute of repose as a legal barrier.
Under the CLJA, claimants will have the burden of proving their claims. However, the CLJA adopts a lowered standard of proof for causation. Section (b)(2) of the CLJA allows plaintiffs to prove a relationship between the Camp Lejeune water and their alleged injuries based on a single epidemiological study:
(2) USE OF STUDIES.—A study conducted on humans or animals, or from an epidemiological study, which ruled out chance and bias with reasonable confidence and which concluded, with sufficient evidence, that exposure to the water described in subsection (a) is one possible cause of the harm, shall be sufficient to satisfy the burden of proof described under paragraph (1).
CLJA § (b)(2). This language appears to suggest that CLJA claimants will not need to retain expert witnesses to support their claims as long as they can cite a study showing that their injury is associated with Camp Lejeune.
The VA Clinical Guidance and the ATSDR Study could potentially be accepted as per se evidence of causation for multiple myeloma claims under the CLJA. This means that individuals who bring claims under the CLJA for multiple myeloma may not need to present expert evidence in support of causation.
What Are Projected Camp Lejeune Multiple Myeloma Settlement Amounts?
Our lawyers believe that Camp Lejeune multiple myeloma cases under the CLJA could have an average per person settlement amount between $150,000 and $425,000.
Of course, it is still early in this litigation. It is too early to know exactly how much Camp Lejeune multiple myeloma cases under the CLJA could be worth. There will be many variables that could significantly impact the Camp Lejeune multiple myeloma settlement amounts on a case-by-case basis. So it is not a one-size-fits-all settlement amount. Multiple myeloma payouts will be calibrated based on a host of facts that include age, final outcome, length of time at Camp Lejeune, and so forth.
Despite these limitations, we can still offer a reasonably reliable estimate of the potential settlement payouts of Camp Lejeune multiple myeloma lawsuits by looking at settlements and verdicts for multiple myeloma in prior tort cases, such as medical malpractice.
Why Are the Multiple Myeloma Lawsuits Are So Strong?
The Camp Lejeune multiple myeloma lawsuits are strong because there is no dispute that benzene and TCE cause multiple myeloma.
Example Multiple Myeloma Camp Lejeune Lawsuit
An example of a recently filed Camp Lejeune multiple myeloma lawsuit is Pugh v. United States (7:22-cv-124).
This case involves Marine Corps veteran Timothy Pugh. Pugh lived on base at Camp Lejeune while he was stationed there from 1984 to 1986. This was just at the end of the water contamination period at Camp Lejeune.
While living on base, Pugh alleges that he was exposed to the contaminated water that he used for drinking, bathing, and other purposes, causing him to be exposed to TCE, PCE, vinyl chloride, and benzene. Sometime after his residency at Camp Lejeune, Pugh was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
In this multiple myeloma Camp Lejeune lawsuit, Pugh asserts that bad water at Lejeune caused his multiple myeloma. His lawsuit claims that the causal relationship between his injuries and the water is “at least as likely as not.” The Complaint asserts a single cause of action under the CLJA.
Proving Causation in a Multiple Myeloma Water Contamination Lawsuit
Multiple myeloma is one of the handfuls of health conditions that the VA has classified as presumptively connected to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. This means that the scientific evidence linking the Camp Lejeune water to multiple myeloma is strong and compelling.
Under the lower equipoise causation standard adopted by the CLJA, it will be very difficult for the government to oppose causation in cases involving “presumptive” Camp Lejeune diseases, such as multiple myeloma.
Contact Us About a Camp Lejeune Multiple Myeloma Lawsuit
If you lived or worked at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987 and were subsequently diagnosed with multiple myeloma, call us today at 800-553-8082 or get a free online consultation.