AUGUSTA – There are now just two spots on the planet – the jungles of Vietnam and the demilitarized zone in South Korea – where exposure to Agent Orange is officially recognized as the presumed cause of a host of devastating illnesses in American military personnel.

The number of sites is likely to rise to three, however, if emerging concerns about the use of the toxic defoliant and related chemicals at a military base in New Brunswick during the 1960s are verified by environmental testing, personal interviews, and analysis of American and Canadian military documents.

Officials from the Maine National Guard met Tuesday morning at Camp Keyes in Augusta to begin planning a local response to the possibility that Maine troops may have been exposed to Agent Orange, Agent Purple and other herbicides while training at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown near Fredericton. While some actions can be taken at the state level, officials indicated that critical steps – leading, potentially, to the compensation of Guard members whose health has suffered because of exposure – must be taken at the federal level and in cooperation with the Canadian government.

According to Canada’s Department of Defence, small areas of the 272,000-acre base were sprayed over seven days in the summers of 1966 and 1967 at the request of the base commander to clear dense vegetation for artillery training. Though the applications were limited, the products’ chemically active ingredients and byproducts are known to linger in soils and to accumulate in body tissues.

The U.S. Veterans Administration recognizes a number of specific health disorders as being caused by exposure to Agent Orange, including birth defects, diabetes, diseases of the skin and a number of cancers. Heart and respiratory disorders also have been linked to exposure. Agent Purple is a chemically similar but more potent product.

Maj. Gen. Bill Libby, head of the state’s National Guard and commissioner of the state Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management, said Tuesday that calls are beginning to come in from Maine soldiers and veterans seeking information about their likely exposure, the medical consequences and the possibility of financial compensation. Calls have been received at Guard headquarters, the state’s Bureau of Veterans Affairs and the Veterans Affairs Medical and Regional Office Center at Togus, Libby said.

“We want people to be informed,” Libby said, “but we don’t want to be fielding calls from all of the tens of thousands of Guard members who’ve trained at Gagetown over the years.” Libby said his goal is to have key information available on the Maine Guard’s Web site, as well as a central phone number to call, by the end of this week. He also directed his staff to create a registry of people who make contact so they can be easily reached as new information becomes available.

If it is determined that having trained at Gagetown represents a significant risk, all Maine troops who ever have participated in exercises there will be located and contacted, the general said. Units of the Maine National Guard have been training at the New Brunswick facility since 1971.

Another issue is whether it’s safe to continue training at Gagetown in the future, Libby said. Maine guardsmen just completed a two-week session at the facility last week and the next planned exercise is in June 2006.

Though it may be months before environmental testing and other investigations into Gagetown’s status are completed, Libby on Tuesday directed his staff to begin the process of locating another training site in case it’s needed.

But other steps are out of the state’s control. The Canadian government has said soil samples from the base will be tested this summer and the results made public. Military records from both sides of the border will be examined to determine how the defoliants were applied, by whom and under what conditions. Veterans and civilians who may have been directly involved with the spraying operations will be located and interviewed. When all available information has been gathered and analyzed, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will determine what, if any, special benefits may be available.

Libby said he is disappointed that the Canadian defense department has not been more proactive in providing information to the United States. The use of Agent Orange at Gagetown has been publicly acknowledged in Canada since the early 1980s. Also, the Canadian defense department’s recent decision to compensate two veterans for illnesses related to their exposure at the base in the 1960s has prompted a flurry of new claims in that country.

Libby said the first he heard of the matter was about a week ago when a Maine veteran handed him some papers at a meeting.

Spokespersons from the offices of Maine’s congressional delegation last week said they had only just been made aware of the problem and would be looking into it.

Information will be available soon at the Maine National Guard Web site: www.me.ngb.army.mil. Veterans also may call the VA’s Agent Orange general information line at (800) 749-8387.

For current studies on the health effects of Agent Orange, visit the Institute of Medicine online at www.iom.edu.