Home Care In Liberty, NC

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The message that using tobacco or nicotine products is a bad and potentially dangerous habit was very clear in August, as Fort Liberty and North Carolina Public Health officials held a two-day training session at the Education Center to educate Fort Liberty medical providers on the dangers of using tobacco and nicotine products, and vaping.

The providers will, in turn, educate the smoking, vaping, and smokeless tobacco population at Fort Liberty.

According to Lt. Col. Teresa Pearce, director of the Fort Liberty Public Health Department (FLDPH), a 2021 community survey revealed that tobacco use, and the use of vaping product, is common among Fort Liberty personnel.

“Almost 60 percent of service-member respondents reported current tobacco or vaping use. This increased to 75 percent, when looking at respondents that live in the barracks,” Pearce said. “Of concern, about 25 percent of current user service members initially started their use after they came to Fort Liberty.”

Pearce said that the two-day training brought together healthcare officials with the University of North Carolina’s (UNC) Lineberger Cancer Center, Duke University’s Center for Smoking Cessation, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services-Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch (NC DHHS-Tobacco Control Branch), and the Cumberland County Department of Health (CCDPH) at the Fort Liberty Training and Education Center.

The UNC Tobacco Treatment Program partnered with Duke University to provide training for Fort Liberty providers and healthcare personnel that can lead to certification as a tobacco treatment specialist (TTS). The FLDPH has an existing public health partnership with UNC Lineberger Cancer Center, Cumberland County Department of Public Health (CCDPH), and the North Carolina Department of Public Health–Tobacco Control Branch.

“We invited the TTS training team to provide this training tailored to a military provider population. The funding for the training was primarily from CCDPH through grants that the partnership has received,” according to Pearce. “This training will educate Fort Liberty prescribing providers (i.e., physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists) and clinical staff about evidence-based tobacco/nicotine product use treatment and prevention.”

Pearce called the training a force multiplier that will empower individuals from the entire treatment team to understand nicotine/tobacco treatment and, therefore, be part of the solution in expanding support of cessation efforts.

“The TTS training is part of a multifaceted program at Fort Liberty to reduce use of tobacco and nicotine products. Educating healthcare personnel is one important facet of the program,” she said. “We are also getting ready to begin a project with the University of Virginia here at Fort Liberty with targeted focus groups with all ranks of service members to better understand current perceptions of the wide variety of tobacco and nicotine products and what draws our population to use them. Armed with that information, we can then develop targeted approaches to cessation and prevention that better fit the Fort Liberty community.”

In addition to these specific programs, all four organizations also work to raise awareness about the dangers of smoking and the benefits of quitting through public education campaigns, presentations to community groups, and one-on-one counseling.

The U.S. Surgeon General has issued several reports over the years on the dangers of smoking and vaping. The most recent report, released in 2020, found that smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, responsible for more than 480,000 deaths each year. The report also found that vaping is not a safe alternative to smoking, and that young people who vape are more likely to start smoking cigarettes later in life.

Here are some of the key findings of the Surgeon General's report on the dangers of smoking and vaping:

• Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other serious health problems. • There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. • Secondhand smoke can cause cancer, heart disease, and other health problems in nonsmokers. • Vaping is not a safe alternative to smoking. • E-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is a highly addictive drug. • Vaping can expose users to harmful chemicals, including formaldehyde and acrolein. • Young people who vape are more likely to start smoking cigarettes later in life.

Although Pearce and other Public Health officials would love to see smoking, vaping, and other forms of tobacco and nicotine use wiped out, she is more realistic about the approaches that are necessary to educate smokers about the dangers of their chosen habits.

“A more attainable goal is to widen the opportunities for our community to access the knowledge and resources needed to quit, and to create targeted educational efforts to aid prevention,” she added.

RALEIGH – Third-ranked NC State women's basketball (10-0) closed out its home non-conference slate with a perfect record thanks to an 80-67 victory over Liberty (3-7) Sunday afternoon in Reynolds Coliseum.

Zoe Brooks headlined the afternoon by securing NC State's first triple-double since the 2000-01 season, with the freshman recording 14 points while tabbing a career best 12 rebounds and 10 assists in her first career start. Brooks' performance marked just the second triple-double in program history, with the first coming from Tynesha Lewis on Feb. 21, 2001 in a win over North Carolina.

Aziaha James led the way offensively for the Wolfpack with 18 points sparked by four made three-pointers, and James and Brooks served as two of five members of the Pack to finish in double figures in scoring. NC State's scoring effort was boosted by a pair of 15-point performances by Mimi Collins and Madison Hayes as well as a 10-point showing from Laci Steele.

In addition to Brooks' team-high 12 rebounds, Hayes had 11 boards and Collins collected 10, while Brooks' ten assists were the most passed out by a Wolfpack player since Raina Perez distributed ten in the 2022 NCAA Tournament against UConn.

NC State went on a 10-2 run in the middle of the second quarter to lead by as many as 14 (34-20), but Liberty scored the final six of the opening half to make it just a six-point game (37-31) at the break.

The teams traded buckets to start the second half, and Liberty drew within three points twice. The Pack responded by rallying off seven unanswered points to put its lead back in double figures with 2:35 remaining in the third quarter and ultimately scored 15 of the final 20 points of the period to lead by 13 (60-47) going into the final 10 minutes.

The Flames were able to shrink the Pack's lead to as few as five points in the final frame, but a three-point play from Hayes with 2:14 left in the game gave the Pack an eight-point edge that proved to be insurmountable.

The Wolfpack will play its first true road game, the start of three in a row away from home, at South Florida on Saturday, Dec. 16. Tip-off from the Yuengling Center in Tampa is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

State environmental regulators criticized Fort Liberty’s plan to test off-base drinking water for toxic PFAS, saying it fails to account for all of the potential contamination, according to correspondence dated June 6. In addition, the NC Department of Environmental Quality told base officials that letters they sent to nearby landowners about well testing were misleading.

Although not mentioned in DEQ’s correspondence, some people whose wells are contaminated because of Fort Liberty might not qualify for free replacement water. That’s because the Army is using the EPA’s 2016 health advisory goals for two types of the compounds, which have since been updated, although not finalized.

Landowners who are connected to municipal water – but also might use private wells for drinking, irrigation, or recreation – “are not being notified of the possibility of contamination,” according to a letter from Tessa Monday, an environmental engineer with DEQ’s Division of Waste Management, to Fort Liberty officials.

Some renters would also be excluded from the process because it “does not notify or allow for tenants to request well sampling,” Monday wrote. This is inconsistent with other military sites in North Carolina that do inform renters of their sampling plans, according to the letter.

A Fort Liberty spokesperson told NC Newsline via email that the military is “currently coordinating a meeting with state officials to discuss a way ahead with a focus on factual, open communications; ensuring the health and safety of our service members, their families, the DoD civilian workforce and the surrounding local communities in which we serve.”

Exposure to even very low levels of PFAS, short for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, has been linked to multiple health problems, including thyroid and liver disorders, kidney and testicular cancers, immune system deficiencies, obesity, high cholesterol, and reproductive and fetal development problems.

The sources of additional public information are limited and pale in comparison to the public forums being conducted by the Navy and Air Force in North Carolina.

– Tessa Monday, Division of Waste Management

The main source of PFAS contamination at and near Fort Liberty — and many military bases — is firefighting foam, known as AFFF, long used in training exercises. AFFF can enter the drinking water supply by seeping into groundwater and entering rivers and streams. The Department of Defense is phasing out AFFF in favor of PFAS-free products.

In 2020, well testing at a remote training location at Fort Liberty found PFAS at 95 parts per trillion well above the EPA’s health advisory goal of 70 ppt recommended at the time. There were concerns that PFAS could migrate off-base in the groundwater, prompting military officials to propose sampling private and public supply drinking water wells in three areas outside Fort Liberty boundaries.

Last month, military officials drafted and mailed letters to landowners asking for permission to sample their wells. However, they did so “without input from the Division,” Monday wrote. “The letter’s language is highly technical and therefore difficult for a layperson to understand. It fails to mention how PFAS entered the groundwater (primarily through the use of AFFF).”

Nor does the military’s letter explicitly state that residents will receive replacement water, depending on the test results, or what that replacement would be: bottled water, reverse osmosis, or granular activated carbon filters.

It’s also possible that some landowners won’t qualify for free replacement water from the military, even though their wells are highly contaminated. The Department of Defense is using an outdated health advisory goal for PFOA and PFOS — 70 parts per trillion. Last year, EPA scientists determined the compounds are significantly more toxic than previously believed and issued much stricter health advisory goals: 4 ppt for PFOA and PFOS. Until that more stringent goal becomes finalized as a rule, the Department of Defense plans to use the old figure, according to state records.

Fort Liberty is one of 707 active military installations, Base Realignment and Closure locations, National Guard facilities, and Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) that require a PFAS assessment, according to the Department of Defense. Of those, six are in North Carolina, including the Military Ocean Terminal in Sunny Point, and Army Aviation Support Facilities in Morrisville and Salisbury.

In 2022, groundwater at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro also tested above current EPA health advisory goals for the compounds; for PFOS, the levels were more than eight times above the goal — 32.9 ppt.

In March of this year, Fort Liberty tested a water system on-base that contained PFOA at 7.9 ppt, twice the latest health goal. Other sampling showed finished drinking water contained a total of 12.3 ppt for the compounds.

The military’s letter also says that it could share testing private well testing data with the EPA or other federal agencies. That is misleading, Monday wrote, and could alarm landowners. “The EPA has no active role in this process. This statement might dissuade landowners from allowing sampling (federal government distrust and or property value issues).”

The Department of Defense has launched a website devoted to PFAS and military bases. But Fort Liberty officials omitted the website in its sampling request letter to landowners. Public outreach and transparency about PFAS are especially important near Fort Liberty, even more so than other military bases, because of its proximity to Chemours.

The base is 27 miles north of Chemours’s Fayetteville Works plant, which uses some types of PFAS in its chemical manufacturing. The plant is responsible for contaminating the Lower Cape Fear River, the drinking water supply for hundreds of thousands of people, with several types of PFAS, including GenX. And because PFAS can travel in air, some compounds have been detected in groundwater as far as 25 miles from the Chemours plant, including in Cumberland County, east of the base.

Although the Defense Department called its website a “significant first step in creating awareness and transparency about actions the DoD is taking to address PFAS matters,” Monday of the Division of Waste Management called Fort Liberty’s communications with the public “limited and pale in comparison to the public forums being conducted by the Navy and Air Force in North Carolina.”

Monday added that the military’s sampling process for off-base wells does not create the “awareness and transparency” — as described on the Defense Department’s website — “that the Division would like to see in ensuring the protection of the people of North Carolina.”

The Army has finished major renovations and demolition of Fort Liberty, North Carolina's troubled Smoke Bomb Hill Barracks, which the service deemed unlivable after a slew of complaints from soldiers and media scrutiny.

Three barracks buildings were renovated and are set to house soldiers again in early 2024. But a dozen barracks were determined to be unsalvageable due to mold infestations and aging infrastructure. The Defense Department fast-tracked $82 million in contracts in September 2022 to renovate three buildings, and an additional $13.5 million contract to demolish 12 others.

The moves come after Military.com reported on the poor state of the barracks in August 2022, including senior Army officials' dismay over how local leadership had tolerated a rapidly deteriorating quality of life for soldiers stationed at the base, then known as Fort Bragg. The service quietly announced the renovations last week.

"The Smoke Bomb Hill Barracks on Fort Liberty were identified to have life, health and safety issues due to systematic mechanical issues that resulted in a failure in humidity control, which increased the mold growth in the living spaces of the soldiers," Cheri Dragos-Pritchard, a spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers, wrote in a press release. "Those conditions could have negatively impacted the readiness of the XVIII Airborne Corps mission for a rapidly deployable force."

After senior leaders condemned the barracks, it triggered an unprecedented relocation of some 1,171 soldiers, putting an enormous strain on garrison logistics and marking one of the largest movements of soldiers outside of a mission in recent Army history. Nearly 300 of those troops were allowed to live off base.

Smoke Bomb Hill's closure served as a flash point over dilapidated living quarters for junior enlisted troops, a key quality-of-life concern that dominated media coverage of the Army. In some cases, mold has infested barracks to such a degree that soldiers have reported to Military.com about having to go to the emergency room for coughing up blood, difficulty breathing and other symptoms consistent with long-term exposure to mold.

Liberty garrison leaders knew numerous rooms were infested with mold, but action was taken only after direct complaints to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and an inspection by now-retired Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston, who then served as the top enlisted leader for the service. The complaints also came at a time when the Army was vocal about quality-of-life issues for soldiers, a priority that seems to have become less pronounced after a change in senior leadership.

Fort Liberty has been the only installation to move troops en masse due to mold or other infrastructure issues. A 2022 investigation by Military.com found that Fort Stewart, Georgia's barracks are in equally bad or possibly worse shape, but local leadership said there are no plans to move residents -- though in some cases, soldiers who have been treated for health ailments have been relocated.

After Military.com's investigation, the Army inspected all of its active-duty barracks, finding 2,100 had some sort of mold issue. Of those, 390 barracks are in "poor or failing" condition, according to internal service documents reviewed by Military.com.

Funding is at the heart of the issue. Army planners estimate it would cost $7.5 billion simply to catch up on maintenance and repair backlogs for soldier housing, particularly in humid parts of the country including North Carolina, Georgia and Hawaii.

The Army has a relatively small $1 billion annual budget to maintain and build new barracks, with some projects at Fort Cavazos, Texas, and Fort Carson, Colorado, projected to open within the next three years. Though the Army aims to fully fund maintenance, Wormuth told Military.com in October, the service in recent years has taken roughly 15% of its maintenance budget for barracks and diverted it to other, unrelated priorities.

Even without diverting the funds, fully funding maintenance would add only about $343 million to the barracks budget overall through the rest of the decade -- essentially pocket change for the Army that doesn’t account for the likely rise of labor and construction costs.

Lawmakers in states with a large military presence have since asked all of the services to figure out a price tag to catch up on all renovations and construction, something the Army has been gun-shy about as it juggles demands such as running expensive Combat Training Centers and expanding its footprint in the Pacific.

Army leaders within the last month held a meeting on future plans for barracks, including potential new policies and construction efforts, but nothing has been formalized, Maj. Gen. John Rafferty, the chief of Army public affairs, told Military.com.

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