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Canada offers $20,000 for Agent Orange victims

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick — The federal government will give a one-time payment of $20,000 to individuals who say their health was adversely affected by Agent Orange spray programs at a New Brunswick military base, but a list of conditions limits the number of people who qualify.

The announcement says only veterans and civilians who worked on or lived within roughly three miles of Canadian Forces Base Gagetown between 1966 and 1967, and only those who have illnesses associated with Agent Orange exposure, can apply for the compensation package. The base was long used to train Maine Army National Guard troops.

It is anticipated roughly 4,500 people will be eligible for the payment. The total cost of the program is $96 million.

The U.S. military tested Agent Orange, Agent Purple and several other powerful defoliants on a small section of the base over seven days in 1966 and 1967.

Federal officials stressed it was the only time the defoliants — widely used during the Vietnam War — were sprayed in Canada.

Monetary awards will also be considered for primary caregivers of qualifying individuals who died on or after Feb. 6, 2006.

The announcement will be disappointing for individuals and groups who had pushed for a wider compensation program that encompassed the effects of other herbicide sprays applied at the base, beginning in the 1950s.

Eligibility criteria include illnesses associated with Agent Orange exposure, as determined by the U.S. Institute of Medicine. These conditions include Hodgkin’s disease, lymphoma, respiratory cancers, prostate cancer and type 2 diabetes.

However, qualifying individuals only have to prove they have these conditions. They do not have to prove they were somehow exposed to Agent Orange.

An extensive fact-finding mission led by the Department of National Defense concluded that the base is safe, and the vast majority of people on the base and in nearby communities have not experienced long-term health effects.