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Topic: Agent Orange Gagetown (Read 7793 times)
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Young Ken
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What Happened to the Agent Orange String?
June 21, 2007
Agent Orange report minimizes health risk at N.B. base
By CHRIS MORRIS
OROMOCTO, N.B. (CP) - The latest report on the use of Agent Orange and other herbicides at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick says there is almost no risk to human health from the contentious spray programs.
Cantox Environmental of Ontario, the company hired by the federal government to look into the Agent Orange controversy, said Thursday the vast majority of people who live and work near the sprawling base don't have to worry about long-term health effects from active ingredients in the herbicide sprays.
The company said potential, long-term health risks were identified only for individuals directly involved with applying some of the defoliants, or clearing treated brush soon after applications.
The findings are in line with earlier reports on the risks to human health, which found that only those closely involved in the preparation and application of the herbicides should be concerned about possible health problems.
"The science right now is basically telling us there is a negligible risk, somewhat augmented for those who handled it, managed it and manipulated it in a direct way - but still minimal, if not immeasurable," said Dr. Dennis Furlong, head of Ottawa's fact-finding mission on the Gagetown spray programs.
"The overall scenario is that people in the area are safe."
The latest findings will help guide the federal government, which is considering compensation for people who say their health has suffered because they were exposed to the defoliants.
The people leading the charge for compensation are not impressed with the latest scientific findings.
"It's part and parcel of a political public relations campaign," said Art Connolly, head of the Agent Orange Association of Canada.
"They're narrowing it right down to, 'Unless you were swimming in the stuff, there's no chance you could have been hurt."'
Over several days in 1966 and 1967, the U.S. military worked at Gagetown testing a number of defoliating agents, including agents orange, white and purple.
The chemicals were widely applied during the Vietnam War to clear jungles and have since been linked to a number of health problems, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia, soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and chloracne.
In addition to the military tests, a variety of commercially available herbicides have been used to clear foliage at the heavily forested base since it opened in the 1950s.
Many veterans and people living near Gagetown say they believe the years of spraying have had a harmful effect on human health.
Cantox confirmed that most of the herbicides used at CFB Gagetown continue to be used in Canada, though the company stressed that the early formulations contained ingredients like dioxin that are now banned in Canada.
Meanwhile, some military veterans are becoming impatient with the federal Conservative government's protracted process for awarding compensation.
Wayne Cardinal, a veteran who served at CFB Gagetown for many years, said Ottawa has enough evidence from the people who say they were affected by the sprays to make a decision.
"There has been nothing favourable out of that team of scientists since this whole thing started," he said. "We didn't expect anything overly favourable to come out of it. They are hired by the government, so we don't expect shocking evidence in our favour. However, we know better. We were there, they weren't."
Furlong expects the fact-finding mission to produce its most critical report by mid-summer - an epidemiological study of the overall health of people in the Gagetown area.
Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has said that $20,000 to $25,000 is the normal range for compensation payments.
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Young Ken
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Published Friday June 22nd, 2007 Moncton Times&Transcript
Appeared on page A11
The latest report on the use of Agent Orange and other herbicides at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick says there is almost no risk to human health from the contentious spray programs.
Cantox Environmental of Ontario, the company hired by the federal government to look into the Agent Orange controversy, said yesterday the vast majority of people who live and work near the sprawling base don't have to worry about long-term health effects from active ingredients in the herbicide sprays.
The company said potential, long-term health risks were identified only for individuals directly involved with applying some of the defoliants, or clearing treated brush soon after applications.
The findings are in line with earlier reports on the risks to human health, which found that only those closely involved in the preparation and application of the herbicides should be concerned about possible health problems.
"The science right now is basically telling us there is a negligible risk, somewhat augmented for those who handled it, managed it and manipulated it in a direct way," said Dr. Dennis Furlong, head of Ottawa's fact-finding mission on the Gagetown spray programs.
"The overall scenario is that people in the area are safe."
The latest findings will help guide the federal government, which is considering compensation for people who say their health has suffered because they were exposed.
The people leading the charge for compensation are not impressed with the latest scientific findings.
"They're narrowing it right down to, 'Unless you were swimming in the stuff, there's no chance you could have been hurt,'" said Art Connolly, head of the Agent Orange Association of Canada.
Over several days in 1966 and 1967, the U.S. military worked at Gagetown testing a number of defoliating agents, including agents orange, white and purple.
The chemicals were widely applied during the Vietnam War to clear jungles and have since been linked to a number of health problems, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia, soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and chloracne.
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Young Ken
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Defoliant issue a warning for new troops -- veteran
Compensation | Latest fact-finding report says people who mixed or applied defoliant, or cleared brush after, could be affected
By SHAWN BERRY
berry.shawn@...
Published Friday June 22nd, 2007
Appeared on page A1
A former soldier who's unhappy with the slow pace in reaching a compensation deal for veterans said the situation should be a warning to current and future members of the Canadian Forces.
Wayne Cardinal said he isn't impressed with the latest scientific report on the possible health effects for those who were exposed to toxic defoliants at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown.
"I feel we've been treated really shabbily," the Oromocto resident said Thursday, hours after the latest report on the use of Agent Orange and other herbicides at the base from 1952 to 1984 was released.
Cardinal said he suffers from a chronic lung disease and knows of hundreds of former CFB Gagetown soldiers who have fallen ill.
The report prepared by Cantox Environmental said the vast majority of people who have lived, worked and played around the base shouldn't worry about long-term health effects from the spraying.
The report indicates there's the potential for some long-term health risks among individuals involved in mixing or applying the defoliants and those who cleared brush soon after defoliants had been applied.
That falls in line with a previous human-health risk assessment that indicated only people who had been preparing and applying the herbicide should be concerned.
The base has used and allowed testing of a range of defoliants, including Agent Orange, which was tested for four days in 1966 and three days in 1967. As many as 200,000 soldiers may have visited the base during the spraying years, but not all are believed to have been affected.
"The science right now is basically telling us there is a negligible risk, somewhat augmented for those who handled it, managed it and manipulated it in a direct way -- but still minimal, if not immeasurable," said Dennis Furlong, head of Ottawa's fact-finding mission on the CFB Gagetown spray programs.
"The overall scenario is that people in the area are safe."
But Cardinal said Canadian soldiers serving overseas and at home should be questioning what's happening to their elders.
"I look at that and I think they're exposed to so many things over there. They're treating us -- the older vets -- like this. How are they going to treat these kids?
"By God, I hope they don't treat the kids like this."
He said there are plenty of veterans waiting for the "full and fair" compensation they were promised would come soon after the last election.
"They made a commitment, and it's going to be another promise made and not kept. This is not right."
Art Connolly, who spearheads the Agent Orange Association of Canada, said he wasn't expecting much from the latest report.
"I'm not giving it too much credence .... It's like the accused is running the process," he said, adding he'd prefer a public inquiry overseen by a third party.
Cardinal said he has his own reservations about whether the scientific formulas being used in the study will ever really show what happened.
They're based on reported spraying, but he's not sure every chemical used and every amount applied was officially recorded.
Cardinal said he's waiting for an upcoming study to tell the real story. That study will indicate whether there has been an unusual epidemic of cancer and other diseases in the region.
"I hope the epidemiological story might rock their socks," he said.
With files from The Canadian Press.
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Young Ken
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Latest study minimizes Agent Orange health risk
meghan Cumby
Telegraph-Journal
Published Friday June 22nd, 2007
Appeared on page A2
The head of the investigation into herbicide use at CFB Gagetown says only individuals working directly with the chemicals are at a higher, yet incalculable, risk for long-term health effects.
Dennis Furlong made public the results from the investigation's latest report Thursday.
He said the study found people who lived near or worked at CFB Gagetown from 1952 to the present day were not at risk for long-term health effects from the active ingredients in the herbicides.
"For those people who were directly in contact such as the brush cutters and those who were sprayed directly with it, there was an augmented risk which was not measurable," Furlong said. "But, again, not a large human health risk."
Over several days in 1966 and 1967, the U.S. military carried out tests at Gagetown of a number of defoliating agents, including Agents Orange, White and Purple.
The chemicals were widely applied during the Vietnam War to clear jungles and have since been linked to a number of human health problems, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia, soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and chloracne.
Cantox Environmental was hired to study the impact of Agent Orange and other herbicides used at CFB Gagetown.
Furlong said the study was peer reviewed by two other independent experts.
Those scientists did express some concerns about the Cantox study but Furlong would not say what those were. He did say their concerns would be addressed.
A study last year also concluded there were no health risks for anyone who wasn't directly working or sprayed with the herbicides and minimal for those who did.
Furlong said Cantox scientists referred to international literature on the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam to create a model to determine the possible health effects. He said the scientists used a worse-case scenario for their results.
The reports should be good news for those who live in the area, Furlong said,
"That's encouraging," he said. "It may not be what some people want to hear, but it's what the scientists are telling us."
But the claimants in a lawsuit against the federal government who say their health has been affected by the Agent Orange spraying don't agree with the report.
Ken Dobbie, president of the Agent Orange Association of Canada, is a leading claimant.
He said his association doesn't give credibility to the government-appointed investigation.
"How can you have them investigating themselves?" Dobbie said.
Dobbie, 59, who grew up in Oromocto, has suffered from liver disease, type II diabetes and chronic pain.
Jim Cadger, the association's membership chairman who worked on the base at the time of the sprayings, also suffers from a variety of illnesses including cancer and diabetes. He said the rest of the members have "utter disgust" for the studies and don't trust those investigating it to report the truth.
"They're going to whitewash this and put it away," Cadger said.
Merchant Law Group is representing the more than 2,000 claimants in the class action lawsuit.
"It's a disappointing report, but it's not unexpected," said partner and case lawyer Evatt Merchant. "We don't see Dr. Furlong or those working with him as independent."
Merchant said the law firm has its own experts that will contradict the evidence brought forward by Furlong's investigation in court.
Merchant said there's also a much higher than normal incidence of diseases linked with Agent Orange use in people who lived near and worked on the base.
Furlong said one of the investigation's remaining two studies will compare the incidence of those diseases in those people compared with the rest of the province's population.
Merchant said his firm's intent to pursue the lawsuit is unchanged and it is his hope claimants are not discouraged by the report. The firm is waiting for the suit to be certified as class-action by a judge.
Furlong expects his report to Ottawa to be complete by the end of August. The report is expected to inform government policy on compensating those who claim to be victims.
- with files from Canadian Press
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Young Ken
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Published Saturday June 23rd, 2007
Appeared on page B7
(Fredericton Daily Gleaner Article)
The last of the reports on chemical spraying at CFB Gagetown can't come fast enough.
With each day that passes, without the fact-finding reports completed, without the question of compensation satisfied, military families -- and many other Canadians -- are losing faith in their federal government.
The most recent report came this week. It says the vast majority of people who lived, worked and played around the base shouldn't worry about long-term health effects from spraying. The report does say there's potential for some long-term health risks among those who mixed or applied the spray and those who cleared the brush after.
That news is likely to be rejected by the vast majority of soldiers and others who believe their health was ruined by being sprayed by the herbicides -- which included Agent Orange, Agent White and the far more toxic Agent Purple. Those soldiers have heard far too much anecdotal evidence of those sprayed falling ill to be convinced by this report, one of several to be prepared.
The veterans and others have said they are putting their faith in the epidemiological report, expected by mid-summer, which is to track incidents of cancers and other diseases in the area around the camp. Experts have long made a connection between chemical defoliants and serious health problems including leukemia, soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, prostate cancer, lung cancer and blindness and cataracts.
Over several days in 1966 and 1967, the U.S. military tested a number of defoliating agents at Gagetown. The chemicals, most of which contained dioxin, since banned in Canada, were widely applied during the Vietnam War to clear jungles.
Eventually, the Canadian government admitted spraying of defoliants went on at the camp from 1956 to 1984.
That didn't exactly enhance veterans' and others' level of trust in the government.
Neither did the government's continued refusal to compensate its veterans even after the British government started compensating British soldiers who were sprayed during training at Gagetown. The British government is acting on the same information the Canadian government won't accept. Veterans Affairs has received more than 1,500 applications for compensation in the last two years but has awarded only six disability pensions.
And the trust has been seriously harmed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper not acting promptly on an election promise he made in New Brunswick to "stand up for full and fair compensation" for those harmed by spraying. He also promised testing of those who suspect they were exposed, something that also has not happened.
The federal government must act now, not just to do right by its veterans -- important enough on its own -- but also to rebuild the trust that's been destroyed.
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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They shouldnt worry?  ? Good Lord....how, what would they feel????Its too late to worry now, many are sick , many have died...what kind of governmemt is this?? LIe , lie , and lie again....I now believe, because of all this lying and denying and promising over and over that compenasation is coming to the victims.. that a very solid call needs to be made for the Min Of Vet Affairs to step down...IMMMEDIATLY.... in my eyes he has absolutly NO CREDIBILIY ...Resign Sir, and let us get someone in there who trulyb wishes to represent the Veterans of Canada...ranrad |
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Young Ken
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Gagetown Public Inquiry needed to clear the air.
The fact that Ottawa, the Department National Defence and companies affiliated with the chemical industry are the three groups in charge of essentially investigating their own crime against the Canadian soldiers and civilians of CFB Gagetown, makes no common sense. Then again, I don't recall anyone ever having accusing Ottawa of exercising common sense in the first place. MP's in Ottawa are to a large part Lawyers or associated with the law and they are also charged with making the laws of Canada, which they now seem to be totally disregarding.
If one person wrongly sent to Syria and there jailed and tortured warrants a number of Public Inquiries because of possible government involvement and the Air India bombing warrants many Public Inquiries due to the possibility that the government having was forewarned, why is it that hundreds of dead and thousands more contaminated and sick Soldiers from the CFB Gagetown Chemical Defoliant Spray Program, with guaranteed Government involvement can't.
Canadians in a time when Ottawa is trying to increase the Armed Forces need to know what Ottawa will and won't do for their sons and daughters but even worse what Ottawa is capable of doing to their children without even batting an eye.
In my Opinion Ottawa has been working on a public relations campaign to minimize the thousands of Gagetown Military Medical Disability claims for soldiers who served there during the Dioxin and HCB years, (1956 -1984). The fact that Base Gagetown and Area Fact Finding Project (BGAFFP) under Dr. Furlong released their last (to say the least) questionable Report after Parliament adjourned for the summer, virtually makes certain that MP's never get a chance to question the report while it is current news even if they wished to. There is in my opinion no doubt left in anyones mind that the release date was designed spicificly with this in mind?
Are we as Canadians going to be satisfied with Ottawa never investigating this subject, never questioning the Chemical industry and never investigating why the Department of National Defence supplied only (according many BGAFFP reports) "documentation that was more often then not, incomplete or non existent?"
Are we as Canadians going to continue to allow our VAC (Veterans Affairs Canada) to ignore the Veterans Act by never giving the soldier the benefit of the doubt when Chemicals and/or Gagetown are involved? It irks me to know that non elected Bureaucrats can ignore the very act that gives them a extremely high paying job, while they deny pension benefits to the sick and dieing soldiers who in my opinion unquestionably were contaminated by the Chemicals used in CFB Gagetown.
Canada needs a Public Inquiry into this tragedy, MP's in Ottawa also need a Public Inquiry, if only to remove the chemical stench of death and the compliancy with which Ottawa has shown this issue for the past fifty (50) years but in either case Canada has to come clean or totally shut up about other countries atrocities, after all there aren't many Nations who have killed their own Military five times over.
Ken Y
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Well ,when the Gov is in consatant change, ie , "there will soon be a compensation package, then , very few were at any risk, then back to compensation , then to denial it even happened....good Lord.. it is time that the PM fired his Min of Vet Affairs...or is he [PM] in on that too...then , lets get rid of them both...out you go, get... or these victims will NEVER get any decency...ranrad
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Young Ken
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Happy Birthday Canada, you have come full circle.
This July first, on the one hundred and fortieth birthday of Canada, I sat down to reflect on my country and how it got to where it is right now. Yes, I know that I have spoken before about CFB Gagetown and the chemical defoliants used there and also the thousands of unlucky Canadians who have died or become ill due to their exposure to the toxic chemicals there, but have you ever put it into context with the formation of this great land?
Most of the people who first made up the citizens of Canada were on the run, on the run from religious or political persecution in their lands of origin. There were the Irish who left during the potato famine and because of the landlord situation, the Ukrainians who choose Canada because of political differences back in their home lands and to many peoples from all over Europe being jailed because of their religious beliefs, to mention only a few. The thing that I remember most or which seems to have stuck with me is that most of the people came to the new land to avoid the unfair and unjust decisions of the leaders of the countries from which they came.
One hundred and forty years ago our Founding Fathers sat down together and decided to form a country which didn't have the same drawbacks, which drove these now Canadian people from their homes and ancestors to forge a home in a new and unproven land, later to officially be called Canada. These were the former unfairly and unjustly persecuted people from too many countries to mention but never the less people who wanted to create a country where people could live in where even the government would treat the people fairly and justly. A country where the Government came from the people and so worked for the people.
Something has gone drastically wrong because after less then 90 years our government choose to start secrete chemical testing on Canadian soldiers in Suffield Alberta and later to continue with secrete Atomic tests, Vaccine tests and later still the secrete Chemical Defoliant testing done at CFB Gagetown for the US war effort in Vietnam. Now one must remember that these Suffield soldiers unlike the Gagetown Victims, were in fact volunteers because back then Ottawa was still giving the soldiers a choice.
Are we back to Europe's middle ages? Again we find ourselves with only the rich and powerful in charge, with the same powers to tax and expropriate our lands as well as our holdings, have condemned anyone who wishes to show our Christian religion and who don't even believe that they have a responsibility for having tested toxic chemicals on their own troops for the past 51 years, without them even being informed of this fact, nor the possible long term health effects from these chemicals. Where Ottawa gives itself the sole right to decide why, when, what, where and most of all who will receive a few pennies for 50 years of suffering wile accepting no guilt for having ordered the spraying in the first place and then keeping it secrete for 50 years.
In my opinion after 140 years of Canada run in the way our Forefathers chose to prevent these very misuses of power issues, we find ourselves right back where we started and again persecuted and serving a government which was designed to protect and serve us, THE PEOPLE.
As many Canadians celebrate Canada's 140 years of existence as a Nation, I look at it as a time to reflect on why and where we came from and decide if we need to change directions for the future. Maybe we need to once again sit down in PEI, over a few lobster and French fries and hammer out a new Canada, the Canada that our Forefathers meant us to have.
Ken Y
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Amen to that Ken, and i must agree. And i have a special request to all Canadians who read these lines ,that you and I present here today. That is to think over the words here and makea pledge to yourself and your famuilies, and indeed all Canadians to take back our DEMOCRACY... i ask that all consider presemnting to their own MPs, to demand a method of RECALL for all elected officials. I believe strongly that thgis is the only way where constituents can actually control their ELECTED , and PAID MPs, etc.to carry out the work on behalf of their constituents. Right now i feel the PM has the only say ,at least that counts.. and that is WRONG.. it is in fact a DICTATORSHIP with a smokescreen...this has happened in other countries and the results were as described above by Ken..we need to take back our DEmocracy and the only way i see is by a RECALL SYSTEM...ranrad
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Young Ken
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This is not a party indorsement, just news. Ken Y http://www.green.ca/en/releases/06.26.200706.26.2007 Green Party Leader takes aim at recent Agent Orange Report Risk assessment report is a whitewash of a major scandal HALIFAX - Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, will use the occasion of her speech this evening at the Global Ecological Integrity Group's 15th conference to critique the most recent report on the health effects of spraying Agent Orange and other herbicides at Camp Gagetown. "The so-called health risk assessment released on June 21st is not useful as a guide to governmental responsibilities to compensate workers and by-standers. It amounts to a predictable whitewash of a major health scandal," said Ms. May. Ms. May has taught at Dalhousie University in the areas of health and the environment. She has reviewed the study prepared by the consulting firm, CANTOX. "I was initially skeptical because CANTOX has a reputation of never finding a risk when conducting health risk assessments. CANTOX found no risk in an area near the coke ovens site in Sydney that later was found to have arsenic levels high enough to be an acute health hazard. CANTOX ruled no risk to health in expanding the St. John Irving refinery and no risk in adding caffeine to children's soda pop," said Ms. May. "The fact that one of CANTOX's founders, Dr. Len Ritter, was personally responsible as a civil servant more than twenty years ago for providing advice to the federal government that 2,4,5-T was safe when the US banned it, caused me some concern." Her concerns were reinforced in reading the report. "Far from the reassuring pronouncements of the press release, the report makes it clear that there were far too many uncertainties about the volumes of spray used and the exposure rates to reach any firm conclusions. Nevertheless, CANTOX's methodology minimized risks by excluding key factors," said Ms. May. In her review of the CANTOX Agent Orange report, Ms. May noted the following flaws: Consideration of cumulative exposure and synergistic effects of many different exposures to many different substances was judged too complicated to assess and was omitted; CANTOX assumed a rapid rate of decomposition in the environment, essentially assuming that each year's dose of herbicides had vanished from the environment before the next year's spray programme; CANTOX made no reference to the toxicity, fate, and persistence of the well-known contaminants in the herbicides, particularly the hundreds of isomers of dioxins and furans. 2, 4, 5-T was well-known to be contaminated with 2, 3, 7, 8-TCDD, the most toxic compound ever synthesized. It bio-accumulates, as do other dioxins and furans. This factor was ignored; The amount of drift from airborne application was substantially minimized; The potential for groundwater contamination was excluded despite the fact that herbicides, such as alachlor, have been found in groundwater and that, once in groundwater, removed from sun and bacteriological action, tend to remain for long periods of time; The potential for exposure through eating local fish was excluded, even though, as noted, given dioxin and furan bio-accumulation this might have been a serious route of exposure. The potential for the herbicides to volatilize following application was ruled "unlikely" and not considered, even though volatilization of phenoxy herbicides has been considered a real world factor in other studies; Take home exposure from clothing of workers was excluded; The CANTOX review minimized the known health effects of the herbicides in question. 2,4-D and 2,4,5,-T known as Agent Orange have been linked to numerous birth defects (spina bifida and anencephaly) as well as miscarriages, cancer and chloracne. These health impacts were not included, as CANTOX's review of health effects for these substances stressed "increased decreased body weight gain," "nausea, headache, muscle cramps and fever," etc. The extensive medical literature from observed health problems in Vietnam veterans, civilians in Vietnam, women with high rates of miscarriages and birth defects in the US Pacific Northwest, epidemiological work from Sweden, as well as studies from Kansas and Saskatchewan on the link between phenoxy herbicides and soft tissue sarcomas and malignant lymphomas are not mentioned. "When the report was released five days ago, Art Connelly of the Agent Orange Association called the report a `public relations ploy'" noted Ms. May. "It is clearly that, but it is more. It is an outrage typical of the increasingly corrupted practice known as Health Risk assessment. We must move public policy away from these bogus theoretical models of risk and back to the essential principles of public health – the prevention of harm." -30- The following sentence is typical of the reasoning offered for excluding pathways: "Without historical measurements, it is impossible to provide any type of quantitative estimates of historical exposures from surface water and/or fish." p. 30 Carol von Strum, A Bitter Fog. Hardell and Erikkson et al. |
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