Wally Smith wrote a column for the Oliver Chronicle dated August 28 1980 called 2,4-D and cancer. The reason for this column was because the residents of Vaseux Lake were struggling with a milfoil problem and had decided that the only way to get rid of it was to poison it with 2,4-D. Wally found the Vaseux residents’ solution  to the milfoil a disturbing solution because up to that day 2,4-D had not been proven safe for humans.

If the chemical was a problem, the Vaseux residents were not worried because their water did not come from the lake, unlike those 1200 families downstream who got their water from the irrigation canal as well as the Okanagan River.

Wally went on to say, why use herbicides when the jury is still out and when there are other methods to use such as cutting and harvesting?

At the time, there was an American Doctor of genetic toxicology named Ruth Shearer who was from Issaquah Washington near Seattle. She was speaking in Penticton in September on  what toxicology had to do with the science of poisons, their effects, and antidotes etc. Dr. Shearers studies with 2,4-D gave metro Seattle reason enough to exclude the herbicide from  use to control their own milfoil problem.

Wally recommended that all interested persons attend her lecture.

I looked at an archived Cornell University study dated 2001 on 2,4-D and it said there was no conclusive link between 2,4-D and cancer, although workers handling the chemical have higher incidents of non Hodgkin’s lymphoma than those not handling the herbicide.

From the small amount of online reading I’ve done on the topic of 2,4-D and milfoil treatment, there is some use of it in major bodies of water, but it is only considered one of many tools used to combat milfoil.

I have no way of knowing if the 2,4-D was used in Vaseux, but knowing the extent of Wally’s readership which was the Oliver Chronicle, the Osoyoos Times, and the Penticton Herald, to name those I know that carried his column, I seriously doubt it was used. I remember seeing milfoil piled up on the banks of the lake shore but I don’t remember any massive kill.

email: ruralreportwithlairdsmith@gmail.com