Canada Used Agent Orange on Roads Until 1980

Government promises inquiry after newspaper's probe
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 25, 2011 1:18 PM CST
Canada Used Agent Orange on Roads Until 1980
In this May 1966 file photo, a U.S. Air Force C-123 flies low along a South Vietnamese highway spraying defoliants.   (AP Photo/Department of Defense)

Canada used Agent Orange, the Vietnam War-era chemical linked to genetic defects, as a means of clearing roadside brush until about 1980. A Toronto Star investigation found that Canada’s forestry workers faced exposure to the chemical, poured from planes, starting in the 1950s; the government promises an inquiry, amid allegations that successive administrations covered up the use, notes the Star.

“We were saturated in chemicals,” says one former supervisor. “We were told not to drink the stuff but we had no idea.” (More Canada stories.)

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