Well here we go again, sort of. I have not to my recollection ever sent a formal complaint against the K-W Record (i.e. Waterloo Region Record) to anyone. In fact as best as I can recollect I've never sent a complaint about any newspaper anywhere until now. I might add that does not mean that some local newspapers haven't deserved complaints because they have and they do.
The Record reporter, Terry Pender, has contacted me twice by e-mail promising to talk to me by phone regarding Agent Orange which was the herbicide with dioxin impurities in it, likely from Hooker Chemical in New York State. Now to be a little more specific it is my understanding that Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira, Ontario purchased trichlorophenol (2,4,5-T) from Hooker Chemical back in the 1960s for use in some of their herbicides such as Agent Orange which they sold to the U.S. military to defoliate both trees and crops in Vietnam.
In Mr. Pender's May 1/25 article titled "50 Years after the Vietnam War" he references "...workers, companies and the provincial government fighting about compensation for workers who developed cancer after being exposed to Agent Orange in the chemical plants in Elmira...". After I advised Mr. Pender of my skepticism he has since advised in an e-mail that he will get back to me and correct that in the Record. To date he has not done so.
This is not an insignificant matter. Currently Lanxess and fellow travellors have delayed cleaning up the downstream Canagagigue Creek soils and sediments for over half a century. They have manipulated and massaged various "investigations" always to minimize the extent of toxic contamination in the Creek for decades. Even so they are well in excess of health criteria for numerous compounds including DDT, dioxins/furans , PCBs and mercury. Their explanations, excuses and just plain bullcrap are legion. If it should turn out that indeed Uniroyal Chemical workers have a proven history of excess cancers due to occupational exposure to dioxins then most of Uniroyal/Lanxess and the MECP's (Min. of Environment) hot air, obfuscations and falsehoods are gone.
As has been proven a hundred times over dioxins are extremely toxic through numerous pathways to human beings and many other life forms.
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