AUGUSTA — In June 1966 and 1967, the Canadian Department of National Defense tested defoliants and desiccants — Agent Orange and Agent Purple — over the Canadian Forces Base in Gagetown, New Brunswick. The Maine National Guard began training at CFB Gagetown in 1971, four years after the completion of testing and have trained there regularly since. April 2, Gov. Paul LePage signed a resolve supporting the U.S. federal government to recognize environmental hazards there and continue investigating possible health effects.

The bill, LD 1632, "Resolve, Directing the Commissioner of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management to request the Federal Government to Recognize Environment Hazards at the Military Training Center in Gagetown, New Brunswick and the Resulting Health Risks and Disabilities Suffered by Certain Members of the Maine National Guard,” supports federal legislation.

The Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management has been pursuing the recognition of environmental hazards that Maine's service men and women may have been exposed to at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown with the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2005, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

The resolve will support federal legislation that has been submitted in the House and Senate by Maine's Congressional Delegation to further investigate. The Maine Bureau of Veterans Affairs asks veterans who have trained at Gagetown to complete a questionnaire:

“We need your help to gather data to assist us in identifying individuals that served in Gagetown. If you ever trained at Gagetown while serving in the National Guard, please help us by completing a questionnaire to help us identify who you are, when you were there and any health issues that may have been caused by your time at Gagetown.”

According to the Maine Veterans Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs “currently offers service-connected compensation for only the following diseases believed to be associated with Agent Orange exposure: chloracne (a skin disorder); porphyria cutanea tarda, acute or subacute; transient peripheral neuropathy (a nerve disorder); Type 2 diabetes; non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; chronic lymphocytic leukemia; soft tissue sarcoma; Hodgkin’s disease; multiple myeloma; prostate cancer; and respiratory cancers (including cancers of the lung, larynx, trachea, and bronchus).”

In January 2013, the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry reviewed a report completed on behalf of the Canadian Department of National Defense. The Review of Gagetown Herbicide Spray Program concluded: “The concentrations of contaminants at CFB Gagetown do not represent a public health hazard now or in the past to members of the U.S. military/National Guard who trained at this Canadian base or to recreational users who access the site now. This finding also applies to soldiers who trained during the three years following the herbicide testing period, 1966–1967. 

“Basis for Conclusion 1: Members of the U.S. military or the National Guard who trained at CFB Gagetown, in addition to non-military personnel who currently visit the base, may have been exposed to herbicides. The levels to which they may have been exposed, however, were below a level of concern for both cancer health effects and non-cancer health effects. There is little to no increased risk of adverse effects on blood-forming tissues, the liver, and the central nervous system, and the risk of skin disorders or developmental effects is not enough to represent a public health hazard.”

Maine’s Bureau of Veterans Affairs maintains a web page with information about the inquiry at Gagetown. 

For decades, members of the Maine National Guard trained at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick.

“In 2007, the Canadian government admitted to working with the United States military in testing the herbicides Agent Orange, Agent Purple, Agent White and other unregistered pesticides at locations around the base in the late 1960s and began paying one-time settlements to its own veterans who served on the base,” the Governor’s office said.

According to an informational paper issued in 2005, “Canadian officials stated that the U.S. supplied only two barrels of the Agent Orange and Agent Purple defoliants for testing purposes. The testing did not involve wide-spread spraying. Controlled testing occurred under strict conditions, ensuring minimal drift, in an area difficult to access. The testing area was  comprised of two small areas covering approximately 83 acres of the 180,000 plus acres of CFB Gagetown.”

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has not recognized any correlation between the symptoms experienced by Maine National Guard soldiers and their exposure to harmful chemicals used at the training base, according to the April 2 release.