OROMOCTO, N.B. - The latest report in the investigation into the use of herbicides at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown has limited potential ill effects only to those people directly involved in the spray programs.
Cantox Environmental was hired to study the impact of spraying Agent Orange and other defoliants at the New Brunswick base.
The company says people who lived near or worked at the base, including most soldiers, are not at risk for long-term health effects from the active ingredients in herbicide applications.
The report says 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 latest finding is in line with earlier reports on the human health risk of the sprays, which have found that only those people directly exposed to the chemicals should be concerned about possible health impacts.
Those impacts include a heightened risk for certain cancers.
The latest findings may help guide the federal government, which is considering compensation for defoliant sprays at the military base.
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.
In addition to the military tests, herbicides have been used at the heavily forested base since it opened in the 1950s.
Many veterans and people living near the base say they believe those sprays also had a harmful effect on human health, but the sprays were approved by the federal government and were widely used across North America.
