Death of Janey Ensminger

President Barack Obama signed the bill into law in 2012, saying at the White House ceremony that the country has a “moral and sacred duty” to care for those sickened by the contaminated drinking water.

H.R. 1742 was introduced into Congress by U.S. Representative Brad Miller on May 5, 2011. It was the result of Jerry Ensminger's conviction that Janey's leukemia was caused by toxic chemicals in the drinking water at Camp Lejeune, which Jerry did not know about until 1997, when a federal government report concluded that for nearly three decades the tap water at Camp Lejeune had been contaminated by toxic chemicals associated with childhood and adult cancers, especially leukemia.

Janey was diagnosed with leukemia in 1983 and was the only child in the entire family’s known history to have been diagnosed with cancer. She was subjected to many bone marrow extractions and spinal taps, fighting the cancer for nearly 2½ years before succumbing to it. Right after her death, her parents divorced.

Jane “Janey” Yoshi Ensminger was born on July 30, 1976 in South Carolina to Etsuko and Jerry Ensminger. Her mother is Japanese and her father is American. She was the only one of the Ensmingers’ children to have been conceived, carried or born while the family was living at Camp Lejeune.

The death of Janey Ensminger led to the creation of H.R.1742, known as the Janey Ensminger Act, an act of the 112th United States Congress which established a presumption of service connection for illnesses associated with contaminants in the water supply at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune between the years 1957 and 1987 and which provided healthcare to family members of veterans who lived at Camp Lejeune while the water was contaminated. Ensminger was one among thousands of victims of the Camp Lejeune water contamination scandal, which is believed to be one of the largest water contamination incidents in United States history.