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Some more "things" coming back to haunt?
http://chealth.canoe.ca/health_news_details.asp?news_id=15474&news_channel_id=0
Contractors find potential toxins at military site
Aug. 25, 2005
GREENWOOD, N.S. (CP) -- A defence contractor has recommended the military further investigate several dump sites a former soldier claims contained so many toxins he became sick with cancer.
A final report by MGI Ltd. suggests more work be done in "three areas of interest" where sub-surface metal anomalies were identified following an excavation of an area of Nova Scotia's Camp Aldershot.
"They found pieces of metal that were somewhere between the surface and two metres down," Capt. John Pulchny said Thursday at CFB Greenwood. "The next step will be to determine what that metal is."
Pulchny said the military is considering the recommendations from the Fredericton-based company and will decide in the coming months how best to determine what's in the ground.
That could include digging further test pits and drilling wells to take more samples, work the military hopes to complete by Christmas.
The area was also used as a landfill, so Pulchny said the metal objects that were detected could be non-toxic.
The investigation began following allegations by a retired soldier that he was ordered to bury barrels of a thick, toxic sludge he says caused several ailments including cancer.
Bill Coleman, a former army private, said that he and others were ordered in 1961 to bury drums of toxic chemicals they had dredged from the bottom of Peach Lake inside an artillery range at Camp Aldershot.
Coleman, 69, said he and his colleagues hauled up the barrels in the lake, causing an oily material to rise to the surface. On the third day, he noticed dead frogs and turtles in the lake, and a persistent burning in his eyes and face.
The military also recently tested samples of the lake water, but found only slightly increased levels of mercury. It plans further testing of the lake.
Coleman, who has lost many of his friends to cancer, said they recovered pieces of barrels and hauled them to an area to dispose of them. They then were ordered to hose down their truck and were given a change of clothes to replace the boots, gloves and oilskin clothing they had to wear.
Coleman said that six months after dredging the lake, he and some of his co-workers began to feel ill, lacked energy, and he developed sores on his head and hands.
Coleman, who has suffered from bowel, prostate and skin cancer, went to the training camp with the contractors to point out where he thought the burial site was located.
Coleman decided to come forward with his claims after consulting doctors and hearing about allegations of toxic exposure at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick. Several people there have said they were exposed to Agent Orange and other chemicals at the base in the 1960s.
http://chealth.canoe.ca/health_news_details.asp?news_id=15474&news_channel_id=0
Contractors find potential toxins at military site
Aug. 25, 2005
GREENWOOD, N.S. (CP) -- A defence contractor has recommended the military further investigate several dump sites a former soldier claims contained so many toxins he became sick with cancer.
A final report by MGI Ltd. suggests more work be done in "three areas of interest" where sub-surface metal anomalies were identified following an excavation of an area of Nova Scotia's Camp Aldershot.
"They found pieces of metal that were somewhere between the surface and two metres down," Capt. John Pulchny said Thursday at CFB Greenwood. "The next step will be to determine what that metal is."
Pulchny said the military is considering the recommendations from the Fredericton-based company and will decide in the coming months how best to determine what's in the ground.
That could include digging further test pits and drilling wells to take more samples, work the military hopes to complete by Christmas.
The area was also used as a landfill, so Pulchny said the metal objects that were detected could be non-toxic.
The investigation began following allegations by a retired soldier that he was ordered to bury barrels of a thick, toxic sludge he says caused several ailments including cancer.
Bill Coleman, a former army private, said that he and others were ordered in 1961 to bury drums of toxic chemicals they had dredged from the bottom of Peach Lake inside an artillery range at Camp Aldershot.
Coleman, 69, said he and his colleagues hauled up the barrels in the lake, causing an oily material to rise to the surface. On the third day, he noticed dead frogs and turtles in the lake, and a persistent burning in his eyes and face.
The military also recently tested samples of the lake water, but found only slightly increased levels of mercury. It plans further testing of the lake.
Coleman, who has lost many of his friends to cancer, said they recovered pieces of barrels and hauled them to an area to dispose of them. They then were ordered to hose down their truck and were given a change of clothes to replace the boots, gloves and oilskin clothing they had to wear.
Coleman said that six months after dredging the lake, he and some of his co-workers began to feel ill, lacked energy, and he developed sores on his head and hands.
Coleman, who has suffered from bowel, prostate and skin cancer, went to the training camp with the contractors to point out where he thought the burial site was located.
Coleman decided to come forward with his claims after consulting doctors and hearing about allegations of toxic exposure at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick. Several people there have said they were exposed to Agent Orange and other chemicals at the base in the 1960s.