Hi David. My father was RCAF (Marine Section) and we were at Trenton right after the war until 1956 when we moved to Comox. I got interested in the military and DDT by way of other health issues. If your body's defenses are damaged in infancy then in later life you can expect harder than average damage if exposed to other sources of contamination. Yes Library and Archives Canada are great but I feel much of the national embarrassing records have been recently destroyed between 2006 and 2016.
I only a couple of months ago found this site and as a 1950s PMQ Trenton Brat (born 52 thru 56) I have interest in this subject. I am not really sure however if the military was spraying DDTs or Agent Orange. With what is known about CFB Gagetown's past and now known that crown lands of Ontario and British Columbia also being hit with same Agent Orange I would suspect ALL military bases likewise contaminated by Agent Orange. Anybody else having thoughts on this? PS. love this site and all the comments.
Regarding my above posting under name RDK. It should have been "Ralph Daniel Killoran". Apologies, I use RDK on the occasional CBC comments but also I am not very good on computers and postings, its always a struggle.
DDT and Agent Orange serve two totally different purposes. DDT is an insecticide. Agent Orange is an herbicide. While DDT is not the best stuff to be breathing in it is far less toxic than the Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin in Agent Orange. If Agent Orange were used - both sprayed out of planes and trucks on the base I lived in - the surrounding vegetation would wither and die as that was its purpose as an herbicide - to destroy the food crops and remove the jungle cover that was hiding the Vietnamese. Not to mention the serious health and birth defects that would soon show up in the base population. I think the Agent Orange stories are just that - a bit of Cold War paranoia.
I was born in Trenton and lived in Middleton Park from '53 to '59. I remember watching kids run behind the fogger truck on my street. It was DDT that was used at that time, thinking now how insane that was and what the physical ramifications were from breathing it.