Government is investigating allegations that large amounts of a toxic chemicals were poured into the ground at Kindley Air Force Base in the 1960s.

The Royal Gazette has been investigating claims made by a former US Air Forceman that he personally dumped vast amounts of Agent Orange into deep pits on the St. David’s site when he worked in Bermuda. Early this morning in the House of Assembly Works and Engineering Ministry Dennis Lister said the claims had come to his attention and his Ministry was now investigating the matter.

Agent Orange is a defoliant that was widely used during the Vietnam War to clear jungles and has since been linked to a number of health problems, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia, soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and chloracne.

This morning the Minister said: “Concern has been expressed that if the allegations are true surrounding soil may now be contaminated.

“The issues raised are serious enough that I have asked my technical officers to urgently research the claims and report their findings to me within two weeks.

“I would add that early discussions with the Ministry of health indicate that no trend towards illness as a result of such contaminants has been observed.

But to be safe we will fully examine these claims and keep the public generally, and the people of St. David’s in particular, fully informed of our progress.”

He added that the Bermuda Land Development Company did not have plans to build on the site at the moment.