A4 - Friday, May 11, 1984 - North Shore News The tact is that you, me, and just about everybody we know was etther exposed to 2,4.5-T. courtesy of BC Hydro in the tate 1960s, oF else we ate apples trom the Okanagan which had been spraved with the stutt. The outcome of the biggest damage suit ever fo hit the U.S. courts — the case ot 12,000 Vietnam veterans against the chemical com- panies that) manutactured Agent Orange — has an ominous echo in B.C The dioxin 2,4,8-T, used in Agent Orange, is the very herbicide that was sprayed recklessly by B.C. Hydro asa defohant through B.C. in the 1960s and as late as 1973. Incidentally, if anyone in this province ts looking at the results of the American vets’ case with a sense of alarm, ut should be Dr. Gordon Shrum Some of you well remember that when Shrum was chairman of B.C Hydro. he decided to prove’ how harmless 2.4.5-T was by drinking a Countsy Meenortes A dcltightful line of handcarved wood figuring + from the shilled hands of ANRI artisans Strictly personal by Bob Hunter What now, doctor? EWS THAT a group of Vietnam veterans has won a $180 million out-of-court settle- ment against a cabal of chemical companies over contamination by the herbicide 2,4,5-T should come as cold comfort to British Columbians. “herbicide cocktail.’’ The picture of him slurping down this deadly concocuion was splashed all over the media He was trying, in a smart. assed way, to show that there was nothing to worry about I wonder tt Or Shrum has had any odd symptoms late- ¥. Sores? Bumps? Pains? It he has, it serves him right. | have absolutely no sympathy. The reason tor this cold- heartedness is that | vividly recall interviewing a distraught resident of Galiano Island in 1973 whose daughter had been born sut- fering trom a spinal detormi- ty — shortly after BC. Hydro workers sprayed the power line access road above the man's farm with 2,4,5-T The man’s well, it turned out, was directly in line with seepage coming down the side of a hill where the spray- ing had taken place. During his wife’s pregnancy, they'd used the well every day. For years — under the NDP’s appointee, David Cass-Beggs, as well a Shrum — Hydro insisted on continu- ing Ws Massive spraying pro- gram around the province, despite the oft-repeated con- cerns Of organizations hke SPEC and crusaders like Miriam Ducet, Derrick Mallard and Thelma McAdams, people who were prophets without honor in the early seventies — but who were right Gordon Shrum wrong. For the record, Dr. Shrum told me personally over the phone — in 1973 — that there were definitely no diox- insin weed killer sold in B.C In a word, he was tull of crap } note that hydro workers in New Brunswick are ban- ding together to sue that pro- vince’s publ utility for sen- ding them out to spray the countryside with 2,4,5-T — without any kind of protec: tion at all. At this writing, | haven't heard whether similar acuion is gorng to be were dead taken by Hydro workrs in B.C — but it must be coming The really inturiating aspect of this — apart from the incredible, perhaps criminal irresponsibility of people lke Shrum — is the fact that statisticians at the B.C. Diviston of Vital Statistics knew, as early as the sixties, that there had been a signticant rise in this province in the incidence of cancer of the digestive by Sarah Kay FY2JCARC SIVIQeR Vath Royal Pactf lc Centre Beat Mall lower Matl West Vancource Variccurver 922 OO980O oHYo SIES6 Lansdowne Fark Richmond 270 1278 while guys like | system, brain, and_= other parts of the nervous system. What they did not know 1s why. The case of the Vietnam veterans brought to light another chilling fact. Com- panies like Dow Chemcial, Monsantso, Diamond Shamrock, Uniroyal, T.H. Agriculture & Nutrition, Thompson Chemical and Hercules tnc. had known tor five years before they admuit- ted i to the American and Canadian govenments§ that 2.4,5-T could cause cancer in adults who were exposed to it and deformities in thetr babies. They covered up. And do you know who their big customers were in Canada? Their big customers were tn- dustrial users, like B.C. Hydro and the companies who sprayed Okanagan apples. Macintosh was one of the brands. Eat any Macintosh apples back then” Any in- cidence of cancer tn the fami. ly since then? Get upught. | know | am. More than a decade ago. | was one of the people angrily trying to tell Hydro to quit playing around with this stutf What kind of response did we get? Characters like Shrum clowning tor the media, while the public con- tinued to be exposed to a deadly chemical. 1 didn’t think it was funny then. I don’t think it’s funny now. | remember, too vividly, the tortured face of that tather whose daughter was born deformed at the foot ot a hill sprayed with 2,4,S-1 by B.C. Hydro. WVPD grabs young escapees THREE JUVENILE escapees are back in custody after being Make tracked down by a Mothers Day West Vancouver police as dog. Special The three were tracked ee as by the dog Tuesday morning in the Brunswick Crossing She Is area of the Seaview : Highway. 3 West Vancouver Police : \ Q had been asked by Squamish RCMP to asist in investiga- tuuon of reports of three youths ‘“‘running around’’ in that area. Aided by the tracking dog. police found the three and discovered they were escapees from the Holly Containment Centre in World-Wide Delivery Burnaby. Open Sun. May 13 Dollar Shopping Centre 929-4822 GIFTS ¢ PLANTS ARRANGEMENTS ¢ SILKS Fitmess. It gives much more than it takes. p(/ woronB. ne ee oy Picture Framing Lessons A quality Course designed to introduce the beginner to the highly creative craft of framing and matting pictures The course will begin in late May and will consist of six 2 hr lessons Fee $55.00. 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