Army Used Agent Purple At Gagetown: Report

Nice, I'm wondering about fish we ate while fishing in "the area" at base Gagetown. Granted it was 1970 but I wonder, both my mom and I have chemical sensitivities. Then again it could have been the stuff they arial spayed over us while picking Blueberries at Camp Aldershot. We both have Strontium 90 showing up in our blood as well, maybe everyone does, not sure where we picked that up. The military also would summon soldiers at random and give them injections, on numerous occaisons without telling them what the injections were for. Ah, no life like it.

My father worked with the forestry here in Newfoundland for thirty years. In the sixties, the phone lines were sprayed with Agent Orange. He said it was written on the cans that they were using. Not the Agent Orange but the 24D and 245-T. The Americans when at the Stephenville Air Base used some buildings on the base to store the herbicide as well used the surronding area as a huge chemical dump. During the sixties, my father and many of his relatives were hired to help spray folliage in the areas power lines. No ill effects peronally in my family but the other people dad has worked with have children with severe birth defects, and many of them have had cancer....just wondering what this might have done to my father. He said most of the workers came home everyday covered in the herbicide. He himself had most of the hair burned off his arms and legs while working with it.

The "good ol days" were pretty horrific. I feel bad for anyone doused with pesticides and herbicides the way they were back then. I'd like to think were more enlightened now, but progress is slow. My grandfather worked heavily with herbicides like "black leaf 40" and those containing 24D as a gardener in Fundy Naitonal Park and on his own farm garden. If that weren't enough planes routinly wet them with DDT that was arial sprayed in southern NB for spruce bud worm. My mom tells about how after this sprayine she dug in the earth and found knots of tangled earthworms which were bone white.
I'm not sure what kind of damage your father may have received. I'm sure few would be unscathed. My grandfather, the gardener, died of a neurological condition, which mimiced Parkinsons disease, but which a leading parkinsons specialist said was definitely not Parkinsons.

As an aside I googled Strontium 90 and some of the areas I've lived and I find out that Strontium is "nuclear waste" and that base Petawawa where we lived when I was born is 20 miles east of Chalk River and Deep River, the Nuclear research facilities. Also they had Accidents at Chalk River in 1952 and 1958. We where there in 1963 to 64. That might account for S90 showing up in red cell mineral analysis.

And our "esteemed" politicians in Question Period just point their fingers (yes, the ones quite often seen in the cookie jars) at each other, rather than actually DO anything.

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RickW

I was involved in the spraying of fruit trees,on a corporate farm, just outside of Cambridge in England, from 1948 to 55. We used all the herbi and pesticides of the day, like lead, arsenic, nicotine, DDT, tar oils etc, without any protection, right up to malathion and parathion, where I was in a primitive cab on the tractor, wearing a white plastic coat and hat, but no respirator, or other protection. The professors from Cambridge assured us that it was all safe.
Our hands and faces were stained dark yellow by the chemicals, that couldn't be washed off. Our hair below our caps and our eyebrows bright yellow,stained as the wind blew the poisons back into our faces.

With the malathion and parathion we put a small measuring cup full into a 250 gallon tank, making it sure the wind was from behind, as a whiff could have killed us, as it has and damaged some for life. All over the world, probably millions of farmworkers have been and must still be killed by these criminal actions for profits.

In some cases the areas we sprayed were signposted against entering for 2 weeks. All the birds, rabbits, mice were killed with all the good and bad bugs. I hated the work and there were plenty of jobs, but the housing shortage was so acute that I didn't have a choice and it also gave me opportunity to go to classes in town, 10 minutes by motorbike.

I was super lucky to have left when we did, because soon after my old friends started dropping dead from multiple cancers. I was carrying those poisons in my body tissues for 50 years with only the occasional joint problems the doctors didn't have the faintest idea what to do about. I kept telling them about the poisons in my body, but they just ignored me.

Then in the Fall of '02 my body was starting to act up, with paralysis in certain joints, getting worse by the day. I didn't go to medical doctors, because they would have filled me up with more junk, but then, by pure accident, I met a homeopathic practitioner, who took me on, because I was free of medications. In the next 3 months I suffered the agonies of hell, but couldn't take any painkillers, because my advisor had to know where the problems were. As the poisons were travelling around my body, one day my left ankle would be swollen up like a football, with my right shoulder, arm and knee locked up. The next day the whole procession would travel into other parts. I was getting phone advice on what remedies to take 2-3 times a day and the results were astonishing, sometimes within half hour, but it was an agonizingly slow process, because there were no precedents and all the cures had to be improvised and experimented out.

The world record for sleeplessness is about 12 days. I haven't slept a wink for 4 weeks, but have no way to prove it, except my wife. It was the most horrible experience of my life and I had some pretty gruesomes before. I had to go to pee every half hour through the nights as my body was clearing. Getting out of bed and back again was unbelievably painful, repeated time after time. On some days I could only lift and move 1 finger on 1 hand. My wife had to dress and feed me like a baby.

After about 3 months things started to improve, although it took about a year for full recovery. Now, at 78, I haven't taken even an aspirin for almost 3 years and work full days on a variety of jobs.

When somebody starts talking to me about the wonderful results of the great "Green Revolution" I feel like having my fingers locked up around their silly throats. The cold, hard fact is that in their search for profits, some of these crooked corporations are using the whole human race for guinea pigs and as long as they don't drop dead on the spot, their shyster lawyers can get them away with murder by saying: "Prove it!". Then when somebody does, all hell breaks lose with scorn, countercharges, personal innuedoes and so on.

After all, if money can not buy immunity from prosecution and penalties, what the hell is it good for? Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

Thanks for sharing ED, I can sympathize. Although I didn't suffer anything quite as horrific, I spent a year in bed when I was 27 in constant pain, and a decade in recovery. At 27 I went within a year from perfect health to not being able to open a clothespin, because my hands weren't strong enough and having to have help from my husband to button a shirt. I limped and couln't sign my name because my fingers wouldn't work. I spent a year or so getting treated like a head case by doctors who knew next to nothing about MCS or environmental illness before finding a doctor affiliated with Dalhousie family medicine who knew about MCS. I saw this doctor four times over a nine week period with severe flulike symptoms before she said realized something was wrong. The straw that broke my back was that my office was sprayed for paper fleas six times in four months. The last time they sprayed, I reported in Monday morning to find my chair still damp with pesticide and all the papers on my desk damp. By noon I staggered home, I had difficulty recalling my own name. It's a hard way to learn there is next to no public safety net beyond window dressing and spin, and that people rank dead last to the profit margin. "It's safe because it's on the shelf waiting for the consumer" is one of the big lies and you won't know it till you slip through a hole in the safety net and land hard. 15 Years later, I"m doing way better, have two children, and almost full energy. I can't help shuddering though when I see those "air freshening" gizmos compliments of "A family company" on TV ads though. IMHO, there's a whole world of criminal outside what get's prosecuted.

DL

<p>Wow. The longest that I’ve gone without sleep was 40 hours, and I had mild hallucinations towards the end of that … I can still remember watching two suns rise on the second morning. I can’t imagine what waking life would be like after four weeks without a wink of sleep!</p>

This is a link to a site loaded with information about Agent Orange and others. It's too bad there is not much in the way of Canadian content out there. But this is a very informative site.<br />
<a href="http://cybersarges.tripod.com/AO.html">http://cybersarges.tripod.com/AO.html</a><br />
<p>---<br>These days, if you are not confused, you are not thinking clearly. Mrs. Irene Peters

Brother J........if anybody'd told me that they went 4 weeks without sleep, I would have called them barefaced liars. The longest I've been up previously was about 90 hours in one of the old Shell 4000 Car Rallies across Canada in the '60s.

I couldn't sleep when I was sick, because I could only lie on my back and had to move every few minutes, as it was hurting badly. Also, because I had to get up every half hour to the can. As I couldn't use my arms, the most affected parts, I managed to work out a system where I swung sideways and hooked my feet under a chest and propelled myself up. My hands and arms were useless. It was an agony both ways. The worst part was every day when I had to use toilet paper. The most ridiculous task, but at that time the most horrible. One thing I can prove. I've never complained a single word to anybody, and tried to make a big joke of it to take the load off my wife's mind, who had to carry all the burden. But I still don't know how I survived, or if I'd be willing to go through it again? But then, God bless my guardian angel, the homeopathic friend who pulled me through and gave me back my productive life. Ed Deak, Big Lake.

Dear Elected Member of "Government":


A 1970 report from national defence to parliament stated that "no research carried out by the Department of National Defence has affected the use of chemicals in Vietnam." Former defence minister Paul Hellyer says such tests were actually routine, but he attempts to downplay the issue by pointing out that Agent Orange was tested as a tactical weapon, not a chemical weapon.

The Uniroyal plant in Elmira, Ont., was one of seven suppliers producing Agent Orange for the U.S. military."

MY QUESTION: Why isn't someone asking Paul Hellyer: Where in the name of hell do you get off testing a tactical weapon on Canadian citizens and your own military at Base Gagetown? Minister Hellyer knowingly used a dangerous / tactical chemical weapon, this man should be helled for crimes against humanity. Forty years later, I now learn that my "government" tried to kill me.

Regards

Wayne Coady
Dartmouth Nova Scotia
Canada (902) 434-9306

CC: All Members of Parliament

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Good government is not a party government

I'm an American Service Officer for the American Legion. I've contacted our government and we are fileing claims for exposure to Agent Purple// Agent Orange in Gagetown. Maine Army National Guardsmen have cancers and other illneses. We are outrage with both governments for this unthinkable screw up.Thank you Canada for exposing the truth.Tell your people we to are sick because we were exposed to these toxins.

Also from the Hansards:<br />
<br />
National Defence<br />
Gagetown—Testing of Agent Orange and Agent Purple—Timing in Relation to Stated Position on Vietnam War<br />
(Response to question raised by Hon. David Tkachuk on June 29, 2005)<br />
<br />
For a total of seven days in 1966 and 1967 the Government cooperated with the United States to test a number of chemicals at CFB Gagetown, including Agent Orange and Agent Purple.<br />
<br />
The purpose of these tests was to determine the effectiveness of the chemicals as defoliants.<br />
<br />
A list of the chemicals tested in 1966 and 1967 can be found at Annex A.<br />
<br />
Since the 1950s, various types of herbicides have been applied at CFB Gagetown to reduce brush in the training areas and to reduce the risk of forest fires.<br />
<br />
A brush control program is necessary to keep the training areas free of foliage for good sight and mobility. Originally, these areas were cleared mechanically and re-growth occurred quickly. Herbicide spraying offered a more effective and cost efficient solution.<br />
<br />
As well, many of the base's target ranges cannot be cleared mechanically or by hand due to unexploded ordinance. For these areas, spraying herbicides is the only available option to maintain a cleared target zone.<br />
<br />
Today, the CFB Gagetown's brush control program follows all Provincial and Federal regulations and utilizes licensed applicators.<br />
<br />
ANNEX A<br />
<br />
Chemicals Used During Spraying Tests at CFB Gagetown<br />
<br />
The following is a list of the 19 compounds used during the spraying tests in conjunction with the U.S. at CFB Gagetown in 1966 and 1967. They are identified by their common name and the year in which they were used.<br />
<br />
Common Name Year Used <br />
Orange 1966 & 1967 <br />
Purple 1966 <br />
2,4-D 1967 <br />
HCA + T 1967 <br />
70% 2,4-D + 30% 2,4,5-T 1966 <br />
Picloram 1966 & 1967 <br />
White 1966 & 1967 <br />
Not provided in report 1966 <br />
Picloram Ester 1967 <br />
Picloram + Dalapon 1967 <br />
Paraquat 1967 <br />
Diquat 1966 & 1967 <br />
Not provided in report 1966 <br />
Cacodylic acid 1966 <br />
Cacodylic acid 1967 <br />
Penta 1967 <br />
Dinitro 1967 <br />
Benzoic Acid 1967 <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/38/1/parlbus/chambus/senate/deb-e/081db_2005-07-05-E.htm?Language=E&Parl=38&Ses=1#4">http://www.parl.gc.ca/38/1/parlbus/chambus/senate/deb-e/081db_2005-07-05-E.htm?Language=E&Parl=38&Ses=1#4</a><p>---<br>These days, if you are not confused, you are not thinking clearly. Mrs. Irene Peters