RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A long-awaited study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms a link between tainted tap water at a U.S. Marine Corps base in North Carolina and increased risk of serious birth defects and childhood cancers.


The study released late Thursday by the CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry surveyed the parents of 12,598 children born at Camp Lejeune between 1968 and 1985, the year drinking-water wells contaminated with chemicals from a leaky fuel depot and a dry cleaner were closed.


The study concludes that babies born to mothers who drank the tap water while pregnant were four times more likely than normal to have such serious birth defects as spinal bifida. Babies whose mothers were exposed also had an elevated risk of such childhood cancers as leukemia.



Also on HuffPost:




Loading Slideshow...



  • #10 Dye Industry


    <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/2012-worlds-worst-pollution-problems_n_2007311.html" target="_hplink">"The World's Worst Pollution Problems"</a> list courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute.

    <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47256343@N08/sets/72157631800901681/">Photos courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute</a>




  • #9 Chemical Manufacturing


    <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47256343@N08/sets/72157631800901681/">Photos courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute</a>




  • #8 Product Manufacturing


    <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47256343@N08/sets/72157631800901681/">Photos courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute</a>




  • #7 Artisanal Gold Mining


    <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47256343@N08/sets/72157631800901681/">Photos courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute</a>




  • #6 Industrial Estates


    <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47256343@N08/sets/72157631800901681/">Photos courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute</a>




  • #5 Industrial/Municipal Dumpsites


    <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47256343@N08/sets/72157631800901681/">Photos courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute</a>




  • #4 Tannery Operations


    <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47256343@N08/sets/72157631800901681/">Photos courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute</a>




  • #3 Mining And Ore Processing


    <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47256343@N08/sets/72157631800901681/">Photos courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute</a>




  • #2 Lead Smelting


    <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47256343@N08/sets/72157631800901681/">Photos courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute</a>




  • #1 Lead-Acid Battery Recycling


    <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47256343@N08/sets/72157631800901681/">Photos courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute</a>