Ontario has widened its probe of Agent Orange spraying to include all areas of the province, government officials say.
The Ministry of Natural Resources plans to release details of its toxic chemical spraying operations in Ontario next week, Minister Linda Jeffrey said in her first interview since a Toronto Star investigation published Thursday revealed Agent Orange was used to strip Crown land during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
“I can understand how worried some families may be,” Jeffrey said.
“We’re going to probably have to do a fairly large public information outreach to reach everybody we feel may have been exposed and may be experiencing symptoms.”
A ministry official confirmed to the Star it is not just looking at Northern Ontario but all government managed forests on Crown Land.
The ministry is in the process of assembling information from its district offices including records showing when and where spraying occurred and what chemicals were used.
“I’m committed to obtaining all the facts and I’m prepared to share all of that information in a very transparent fashion,” said the Brampton-Springdale MPP. “I will do everything in my power to make sure we deal with this issue properly.”
Documents obtained from provincial archives by the Star reveal the government and timber companies conducted extensive aerial herbicide spraying programs in Northern Ontario. Forestry records showed they were using the same chemicals that were employed to defoliate dense jungles during the Vietnam War, including the infamous Agent Orange. Exposure to this chemical cocktail has been associated with more than 50 diseases and medical conditions by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
In Canada, the chemicals targeted what forestry reports described as “weed trees” — including birch, maple, poplar — which competed for sunlight and soil nutrients with the more commercially viable spruce trees.
The chemicals caused the broad leaves on these unwanted trees to grow so quickly they starved to death, leaving the spruce to flourish.
Jeffrey noted that the chemicals used were all federally approved at the time.
Spraying reports obtained by the Star describe how forestry workers — often high school students and junior rangers — acted as human markers holding red, helium-filled balloons on fishing lines while low-flying planes sprayed chemical cocktails on the boys and brush below.
With the ministry’s blessing, Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company launched the first aerial spraying program in Kapuskasing, Ont. in 1956.
Company records filed at the archives show it used the Agent Orange chemical mix of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T in equal parts during the summer of 1964. The company was sold to Tembec in 1991.
Jeffrey said her ministry would talk with the company about contacting former employees of Spruce Falls.
In an emailed statement, Tembec told the Star it is “committed to providing the assistance we can to the authorities.”
On Thursday, Premier Dalton McGuinty encouraged forestry workers who may have been exposed to these harmful chemicals to call the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board so the province can begin to “build up a data bank and assess what we’re looking at here.”
Jeffrey said she has asked the WSIB to create a special hotline for forestry workers.
In the meantime, anyone concerned about exposure to these herbicides should call the general Occupational Disease Information line and register their case.
WSIB information line: 416-344-4440 or toll-free at 1-800-387-0750, ext. 4163444440.
Diana Zlomislic can be reached at (416) 869-4472 or email@example.com