Mike Partain, who was born in Tarawa Terrace at the Marines' Camp Lejeune in 1968, believes that toxins in the water there caused him to get breast cancer.

Reports from a government agency have found two toxins in water at the North Carolina base that are thought to have caused cancer and birth defects in Marines who were stationed there and their families.

On April 25, 2007, Partain was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 39. He underwent surgery on May 4 to remove the tumor.

With no family history of this cancer and his risk of male breast cancer being less than 1 percent, according to the American Cancer Society, Partain said he believes it probably stemmed from exposure to a chemical called PCE.

There are an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people exposed to the chemicals tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, known as PCE and TCE, between 1957 and 1985 in the water they drank, bathed in, and cooked with at Camp Lejeune, estimates Frank Bove, senior epidemiologist at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The contaminated wells were shut down in February 1985, but the Marine Corps did not inform all of the exposed residents until they were forced to in the passing of the Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Amendment beginning in 2007.

However, Partain had not been informed when he had his surgery. He found out about the contamination in a report on CNN after his diagnosis and surgery. Even then, the Marines did not formally notify Partain until he registered with the United States Marine Corps Water Survey.

"I knew where the cancer had come from, I knew that (from) some of the other things that had happened in my life. I was born with a skin rash that covered my whole upper body, and I knew that's where that came from, too, because these are things nowhere in my family," said Partain.

Government Betrayal?

Many, including Partain, feel the federal government has betrayed the Marines.

"At this time last year, I was dying and I didn't know. The government knew I was dying and didn't tell me. That burns me up," he said.

Two water treatment centers that served the Marine base were found to be contaminated with "probably some of the highest drinking water exposures ever seen in this country," said Dr. Richard Clapp, a professor at Boston University, in a Fox News report.

However, according to the Boston Globe, Marine Corps officials said that Camp Lejeune provided water consistent with industry practices of the time, and that its Marines' health and safety were of primary concern.

Tarawa Terrace treatment center, which served the Tarawa Terrace family housing units where Partain lived and the Knox Trailer Park, was contaminated with PCE levels as high as 215 parts per billion, according to the ATSDR. The current standard is 5 ppb, meaning people who lived there faced exposure of 43 times today's recommended amount.

The contamination happened when ABC One-Hour Cleaners disposed the chemical in or on the surrounding ground, said the ATSDR.

The Hadnot Point system served most of the barracks and the family housing units at Hospital Point. The maximum level of TCE detected there was measured at 1,400 ppb -- the highest level of TCE in a tap sample anywhere in the United States.

"These are contaminant levels of grave health concern," wrote Bove.

Ongoing investigations aim to determine whether Camp Lejeune's water was responsible for a higher rate of birth defects and cancer in children conceived and born there during that period.

Starting in 1999, the ATSDR contacted the parents of 12,598 eligible children, or 80 percent of the estimated total, who lived at the Marine base between 1968 and 1985, for a study determining the rate of specific birth defects and childhood cancers.

So far, the ATSDR found at least 100 babies exposed in utero to the contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune that suffered from birth defects and cancer, including 29 cases of leukemia or lymphoma and 42 cases of a cleft lip or palate.

At least 850 former residents have filed suit against the military. Partain has not, but has done research and contacted U.S. representatives' offices.

Although research is not completely finished to determine if the rates at Camp Lejeune are linked to this exposure, other communities with TCE water contamination have seen an increase in male breast cancer, according to Clapp.

Woburn, Mass., had TCE contaminated water from 1982 to 1988. Four male breast cancer cases were seen, when less than two would have been expected.

Another study in cancer deaths focused on IBM workers who were exposed to solvents, including TCE, and also showed an increase in cancer numbers.

"Over the period of 1969 to 2001, there were 12 male breast cancer deaths in IBM workers, where 9.5 would have been expected," Clapp wrote.

Clapp and others hope the situation at Camp Lejeune will shed some additional light on the connection between male breast cancer and TCE and PCE.