THE INVISIBLE VICTIMS OF DIOXIN IN ONTARIO

The following is one of the 4,000 records provided to the Fact-Finding Panel on Herbicide 2,4,5-T. It is on-line and can be accessed by googling "Welcome to Ontario 2,4,5-T Records Online".



March 24, 1980

Dear Sir:

I am writing to you because of my concern over the decision of the Ontario Government to lift the ban on spraying underbrush in the cottage areas with 245T or dioxin. The Ontario Hydro is apparently preparing to spray in the Chandos Lake area near Apsley.

My father bought property on Chandos Lake in 1924 and we have used the cottage on this land ever since. In 1949 I spent two months in the summer there with our two young children in order to escape the heat of a tiny city Apartment. The Ontario Hydro had cut through our maple sugar bush just 40 feet behind the cottage without any permission a few years previously. During this summer of 1949 the raspberry bushes came up in profusion on the hydro cut in many areas. We picked and ate raspberries for several weeks and even froze some. I learned later that the hydro had sprayed the hydro cut with 245T that Spring or previous Fall. Many people were furious as they noticed the drop in bird population. I had become pregnant in August that Summer and in October had a miscarriage. I knew not why. I had had two previous full term pregnancies and produced two very healthy babies. I became pregnant several months later and at eight months a badly deformed baby was stillborn. It was not until a few years later when I heard on a C.B.C. Farm Broadcast that the spraying of 245T was banned from highly populated areas because of birth defects that I realized why I had had this traumatic experience. Neither my husband nor I have ever smoked or drank and I had never taken drugs or anti-nausea pills of any kind during any of my pregnancies. We were living in Windsor, Ont. at the time and a stillborn death there would not be linked with the Chandos Lake area.

I went through six years of hell until my third child was born strong and healthy, but I was still fearful of having another pregnancy. As a further follow-up to this, my daughter who loved to pick and eat berries with me, has never had a proper menstrual cycle and cannot have her own children. She has had many examinations to determine the cause of this but the Doctors cannot find any reason whatsoever. In every other way she is physically and mentally exceptional having excelled in sports as well as scholastically. The son of one of our cottage neighbours lives in a wheel chair because of a spinal injury he was born with. His mother was with me for a week that same summer. His grandmother has since died of leukemia. Now I know that the "experts" will say there is no scientific proof that 245T is responsible for what I went through, but I have heard of many law suits being won on less evidence. Maybe I should have brought suit against the Hydro years ago, but I could not have faced this experience.

I do hope you can bring pressure to bear on the Ontario Government and Ontario Hydro to forbid the spraying in any area of our country. Hopefully this letter will further the case against spraying 245T. After all people take their children, as I did, to the country in the summer to avoid pollution. And for what? Surely the cottagers should be allowed the peace of mind when in the bush to feel confident that their children and grandchildren can eat the wild straweberries, raspberries, and blackberries etc. that come up so quickly after a clearing is made.

I think we should encourage the young people to do the underbrushing on the hydro cuts as we have been doing behind our cottage ever since. The hydro can come in and cut large branches of trees that pose a danger to the wires but under no circumstances should they be allowed to do any spraying at all not even by the so called "controlled" spraying by experts.

Sincerely



Birth defects, reproductive problems and spina bifida are all recognized consequences of exposure to 2,3,7,8 TCDD (dioxin). The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Transport and Ontario Hydro all were concerned with the health of their (male) workers applying these herbicides. I wonder how many wives and families were damaged by exposure to clothing etc. worn by these same workers. None of this whether in Vietnam, Canada or the U.S. had to happen. Corporate greed and stupidity enabled by morally bankrupt governments protecting corporate interests led to this disaster.