Canadian Class Action Planned on Agent Orange Exposure
FREDERICTON, NB - People angry with Ottawa’s compensation package for Agent Orange exposure at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown are turning to a class-action lawsuit for satisfaction, says the lawyer handling the case.
Tony Merchant of the Merchant Law Group said Thursday his law offices across the country have been flooded with calls from people furious at the federal government’s offer of a one-time, $20,000 payment for those who meet strict eligibility requirements.
“It is ridiculously inadequate,” Merchant said in an interview from his Regina law office.
“It’s enough money to buy a used truck in exchange for what for many is daily pain and suffering. It’s not solving the problem for the government. It’s really drawing attention to the problem and making things worse.”
Merchant said hundreds of people have added their names to the class-action lawsuit, swelling its ranks to about 3,000 veterans and civilians. The law firm is seeking court approval for the case to go ahead in Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson said earlier this week the compensation will apply only to those who worked on or lived near the huge New Brunswick training base in 1966 and 1967 - the two years the U.S. military tested Agent Orange and several other combat defoliants for use in the Vietnam War.
Qualifying applicants also must have one of 12 disorders associated with Agent Orange exposure, including prostate cancer and type 2 diabetes.
Thompson said the payments are “ex gratia” meaning the government is not admitting liability. He said people can accept the $20,000 and still join a lawsuit.
Merchant said the government’s actions are helping the court case.
“It amounts to an admission of wrongdoing,” Merchant said of the compensation package. “They say there is no legal admission, and we understand that, but in effect it is an admission of wrongdoing. So it is helpful.”
The lawsuit encompasses a much broader period of time at CFB Gagetown. It is seeking compensation for people who claim they were harmed by spray programs beginning in the 1950s, when the base opened, and continuing until recent years.
Merchant said the formulations of herbicides used during annual spray programs at the base were the same as those brought to the base by the U.S. military in 1966 and 1967 for testing.
Defoliants used around the world in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s contained a highly toxic byproduct called dioxin, which has been linked to human health problems.
Merchant said that although the herbicides were used across Canada and around the world by utility companies, railways and forestry operations, the lawsuit is restricted to Gagetown because the chemicals were used improperly on the base.
“At Gagetown they caused problems because they were used in such huge concentrations,” he said.
“They also caused problems because of the way in which they then used the land. People were out in the fields, they were in the training areas, in the hunting areas. They even had people burning the brush. It’s the use at Gagetown that was serious.”
Nevertheless, proving cause and effect in court is not going to be easy.
Several studies of health impacts from Gagetown spraying were unable to conclusively establish a link between the sprays and health problems, although there were elevated risks for those involved directly in the spray programs.
Dr. Joel Michalek, who is with the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Texas, said hard evidence of exposure at Gagetown is gone because dioxin leaves the body after a few years.
“The idea is to measure the contaminant in a person’s body and then ask whether those contaminant levels correlate with disease,” said Michalek, who helped peer review studies at Gagetown.
“That would be the traditional approach. However, a person’s body burden of dioxin is eliminated over time. It’s very unlikely anyone would find elevated levels in those people.”
Michalek said that despite the fact court cases are difficult, many are currently underway around the world. He said they often involve complaints about dioxin-laced herbicides.
“These are issues faced by all industrialized countries as they deal with the fallout from exposure to persistent pollutants.”
I worked with children in Hanoi, Vietnam several year ago who had genetic diseases due to their parents being exposed to the toxins found in Agent Orange in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Chemical warfare kills for generations!
During the Vietnam War the US war planes sprayed about 18 million gallons of Agent Orange on the land of Vietnam. As a consequence of this, over 3 million Vietnamese are disabled. The victims are suing over three dozen US chemical companies that have supplied this poisonous chemical. The list of companies being sued includes Dow Chemical (parent company of the Union Carbide, which is responsible for Bhopal Gas Tragedy in India in 1984) and Monsanto, which is responsible for the deaths of thousands of farmers across the world (In India itself more than 25000 farmers committed suicide so far) . These two companies are still involved in poisoning the land and the water with their byproducts in India.
What it shows is that the GREED does not have any value for “others” life. It is this which should be attacked by the common citizens in the corporate controlled countries. Otherwise common people become only “voiceless profit making machines” and “objects” for testing the poisonous chemicals. In a way it is we, the common people, who are electing the collaborators of such companies as political representatives to RULE us. They in turn “supply” common people as a “means” for profit and “objects” for testing poisonous chemicals.
2008 elections are around the corner. Make a wise choice.
this is typical of harper and his crew of fundys. i can’t wait to see these assholes get voted out in the next election. first we’ll have to pry his head out of bush’s ass.
Have you noticed how often news articles about Canadian atrocities make it onto CommonDreams since Harpo took office? It has been his intention to make Canada a first-rate power, instead of what he calls “a second-tier socialist country.” He seems to have succeeded.
Personally, I felt very comfortable as a citizen of a second-tier power, even if our so-called “socialism” was of the most tepid variety.
There’s Viet Nam and there are the U.S. National Forests.
Few people know that the U.S. Forest Service used 2,4D-2,4,5T (military name “Agent Orange”) on national forests all over the U.S. during the 60s and perhaps into the 70s to suppress plant growth in some areas. It is possible to use the Freedom of Information Act to get records for any specific national forest.
I would expect the Forest Service to do its best to hide this and to fight releasing such information. The class action potential would be huge.
Agent Orange is almost benign when compared to Depeated Uranium (du). The horrible genetic damage to children born in Afganistan is pictured on a website that was on Common Dreams concerning du when I looked about a week ago. It won’t print.
This inexcusable violence against civilian populations is going on in spades in Iraq. Now. For billions of years.
Our own soldiers are also exposed, of course.
Here is another example of Corporate abuse with Gov. conivance:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), led by Bush appointees, is seeking input on a new proposed study in which infants in participating low income families will be monitored for health impacts as they undergo exposure to known toxic chemicals over the course of two years. The study entitled Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) will look at how chemicals can be ingested, inhaled or absorbed by children ranging from babies to 3 years old.
For taking part in these studies, each family will receive $970, a free video camera, a T-shirt, and a framed certificate of appreciation.
In October, the EPA received $2.1 million to do the study from the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry front group that includes members such as Dow, Exxon, and Monsanto (see full list of members on sidebar of this page). Critics of the research, including some EPA scientists, claim the study’s funders guarantee the results will be biased in favor of the chemical industry, at the expense of the health of the impoverished children serving as test subjects.
This is from a back issue of www.organicconsumers.org
Here is another “goodie” from the same web site:
The rule allows for government and industry scientists to treat children as human guinea pigs in chemical experiments in the following situations:
Children who “cannot be reasonably consulted,” such as those that are mentally handicapped or orphaned newborns may be tested on. With permission from the institution or guardian in charge of the individual, the child may be exposed to chemicals for the sake of research.
Parental consent forms are not necessary for testing on children who have been neglected or abused.
Chemical studies on any children outside of the US are acceptable.
I thought the plan to test on US children, specifically in Jacksonville, FL, was finally killed at least two years ago. I submitted my comments at the time. The problem was then that the chemical industry researchers planned to do it to infants and children in third world countries. The argument was over allowing results from such foreign-based “studies” to be recognized legally in the US. When, if ever, will it be acceptable to call the people behind these planned studies at both the corporate and government levels evil? There is no other word for it as far as I can see.
AmeriKKKa have all the WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
urthsong: I thought I read about that too. Do you have any more current info?
P.S. Not only can the subjects of exposure NOT be tested for dioxin, a good many of them are probably DEAD! Can the dead ones join the class action suit or claim any awards for their exposure?
P.P.S. Just a passing thought…. If children are to be used in such experiments, the children of the executives of Monsanto should be the ones first in line to be used as test subjects. Think that might slow them down?
I worked for the US forest service for four years in the 60s as a fire fighter. In the off season of no fires I worked on fire breaks defoilated with agent orange sprayed by helicopters. I was totaly, and many others, were totaly soaked with the spray. We were often in the area to be defoilated. Also the helicopter pilots felt that it was great fun to target us and wet us down.