Herbicide sprays at New Brunswick's Canadian Forces Base Gagetown had a minimal impact on human health, according to two reports prepared by independent researchers.

The research firms, which were hired by Ottawa, studied the impact of herbicide spraying at CFB Gagetown in the mid-1960s.

The researchers have found there were generally low levels of exposure, the Canadian Press quoted their reports as saying.

"These results indicate that ... exposures to dioxins in soil, sediment, surface water, groundwater, moose, deer and berries clearly do not and will not represent a potential concern for human illness at CFB Gagetown,'' states the human health risk assessment report prepared by the Ontario-based firm, Dillon Consulting, and U.S.-based RBR Consulting.

The only remaining concerns are for those who consumed fish caught from waterways on the base, but the researchers did not call for any restrictions on access to the lake and river.

They say additional study of dioxin levels may be necessary.

The researchers also found no long-term risks for people developing dioxin-related illnesses.

Over the course of a few days in 1966 and 1967, the U.S. military carried out tests of a number of notorious defoliating agents, including Agents Orange, White and Purple.

"The short-term exposures estimated for the people who were directly involved with the chemical testing (mixer/loaders, pilots, applicators, scouts) do not suggest they would have been at increased risk for long-term, irreversible health effects,'' states the Agent Orange report prepared by Ontario-based Cantox Environmental, according to CP.

The researchers say some people involved in the testing program, including those who handled the sprays when they mixed them, may have been put at an increased risk for short-term effects such as minor skin lesions or greater vulnerability to the flu virus.

However, those short-term effects would have been negligible and reversible, they said.

The study concluded there was no risk to the health of those who lived near the base as the test areas were limited and remote and the spray would not have floated far.

These two latest reports could be damaging to the efforts of hundreds hoping for financial compensation as a result of exposure to herbicide sprays.

Many of the compounds were contaminated with a highly toxic dioxin called 2,3,7,8-TCDD, which has been linked at high exposures to cancer, birth defects and immune system deficiencies.

Some U.S. military personnel involved in the Vietnam War have received compensation because of health concerns arising from the use of defoliants like Agent Orange.

The herbicides were originally used to clear jungle during the Vietnam War.

But researchers examining the case at the New Brunswick military base say there is no comparison between the limited amounts tested at Gagetown and the millions of gallons of herbicides used in Vietnam.

"I'm actually quite shocked regarding the results of the study simply because they're saying the fish are effected but the people aren't effected," said Pam Osborne, whose father was exposed to the spray while in the army in the 1960s.

Osborne told CTV's Canada AM both she and her sister have had premature births, which she says is one of the results of the spraying.

"If you look at a study through Merchant Law, which is a class action suit that many ex-military families and military personnel as well as civil personnel who have just lived in the area have joined, you'll see there's a number of issues including premature births, birth defects, miscarriages, et cetera," she said.

"That is the thing that worries me, is there is no linkage in our family history, except for the spraying in Gagetown."

With files from The Canadian Press