Camelford water pollution incident
Encyclopedia
The Camelford water pollution incident involved the accidental contamination of the drinking water supply to the town of Camelford
, Cornwall
, England
with 20 tonne
s of aluminium sulphate in July 1988. As the aluminium sulphate broke down it produced several tonnes of sulphuric acid
which "stripped a cocktail of chemicals from the pipe networks as well as lead and copper piping in people’s homes." Many people who came into contact with the contaminated water experienced a range of short-term health effects. There has been no rigorous examination or monitoring of the health of the victims since the incident, and the long-term implications for those who were poisoned remains unclear.
on Bodmin Moor
and found it unmanned. Being unfamiliar with the location, he had been given a key by another driver and told simply that "once inside the gate, the aluminium sulphate tank is on the left". However, the key fitted almost every lock used by the South West Water Authority
(SWWA). After twenty minutes looking for the correct tank he tried the key on a manhole cover and when it unlocked believed he had accessed the correct tank. He poured the load of 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate, used to remove solid particles from cloudy water, into the tank, which actually held treated water prior to distribution to the consumers in Camelford. This immediately contaminated the water supply to 20,000 local people and up to 10,000 tourists. The maximum recorded aluminium concentration was 620,000 micrograms per litre compared with the maximum concentration admissible at the time by the European Community of 200 micrograms per litre.
and was safe to use and drink." Within two days, the authority suspected the source of the contamination was the erroneous delivery, which was confirmed on 12 July when the driver was asked to return to the treatment works. However, it was not until ten days later on 22 July that the authority's chairman Keith Court authorised a public notice, containing the first mention of the aluminium sulphate, to be published in the sports section of a local newspaper, the Western Morning News
. Stephens stated that after the site meeting where he confirmed he had delivered the chemical to the wrong tank he was told by the authority "not to mention it to anyone else". The SWWA district manager, John Lewis, said they had realised within 48 hours that aluminium sulphate was the likely cause of the contamination, but Lewis claimed he was instructed by Leslie Nicks, the head of operations, not to tell the public.
Douglas Cross, a consultant biologist
based in Camelford, tested the water and found that it contained "not only aluminium sulphate but other noxious substances, too. As the acidic liquid travelled from the plant into people's homes, it corroded the copper pipes and their soldered joints, made of zinc and lead." Official advice to boil the water before drinking was, according to Cross, "dangerous advice because it concentrates the contaminants. They kept flushing the pipes out for months after the incident. This will have stirred up debris in the bends and only have lengthened the amount of time the water was coming through the taps with all sorts of metals in it."
60,000 salmon
and trout
were killed in the Camel
and Allen
rivers during the flushing out process. The contamination was compounded by the failure of the authority to carry out the required six-monthly cleaning of the tank, which had not been cleaned for three years leading to a build up of sludge.
A month after the contamination, Michael Waring at the Department of Health
(DH) wrote to every doctor in Cornwall saying that, "although he had no detailed information on what exactly was in the water or how much people might have drunk, he could assure them that no lasting ill effects would result." GK Matthews, a senior toxicologist at the DH, suggested a team of medical experts should be sent to the area immediately but a month later said he had been "overruled". The National Union of Public Employees
alleged that "The procedure by which the driver had access to the site was not confined to Lowermoor but is common through the authority's region. We believe this is not unconnected with reduced staffing levels and privatisation plans."
scientist and non-excutive member of the water authority, blamed lax procedures. He also criticised communication failures which kept information from the public.
announced that there would not be an independent public inquiry, and declared "All the facts are fully known and there is no reason to believe that a public inquiry could add to that." In November 2000 the Environmental Law Centre prepared a petition to the European Parliament
calling for a Brussels-based inquiry. On 14 August 2001 the government announced that an investigation – although not a full public inquiry – in to the incident would take place. The investigation was to be undertaken by the newly formed Lowermoor Subgroup (LSG) consisting of scientific and health experts and local resident representatives, chaired by Frank Woods, a professor of medicine at the University of Sheffield
. Woods was also the head of the government's Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT), of which the Lowermoor team was a subgroup. Its remit was to advise on whether the incident had caused, or was expected to cause, long-term harm to human health and examine whether the existing programme of monitoring and research into the human health effects was sufficient
The report, published on 26 January 2005, was inconclusive, saying that the long-term health effects on the population were still unknown and that there was insufficient scientific information available to determine whether the health problems being experienced were caused by the contamination. Woods called for further studies and said: "We will be putting the strongest possible case to the minister. I believe carrying out that work is important, it is not something which should be dropped and pushed aside." The following year, Meacher made several criticisms of the group:
Two members of the LSG committee have also since claimed that the DoH previously knew that some people were at especially high risk from aluminium poisoning but deliberately suppressed this evidence to protect the government's plans for water privatisation.
concluded that some victims had suffered "considerable damage" to their brain function. This contradicted the 1991 LIG report telling residents that their symptoms were due to anxiety. The study was led by a consultant nephrologist
at John Radcliffe Hospital
, Oxford
, and was the first large-scale clinical study of the affected residents. The report stated that their symptoms were similar to those of Alzheimer's disease
, which has also been linked with large quantities of aluminium accumulating in the brain. Rejecting the findings of the LIG, the report called for further research to determine the longer term prognosis for the affected individuals and led to fresh calls for a public inquiry into the pollution incident. Although the study was carried out in 1991, its publication was delayed by the ongoing litigation between SWWA and the victims.
Victims have also reported:
Seven months after the contamination, one victim underwent a bone biopsy which "found a ring of aluminium like the rings you see in trees" that could not have resulted from normal aluminium absorption.
into the death of Carol Cross at age 58, who was exposed to the contaminated drinking water aged 44, showed that her brain contained 23 micrograms of aluminium per gram of brain, compared to the normal brain levels of 0–2 micrograms per gram. Her death was caused by a form of early-onset beta amyloid angiopathy, a cerebro-vascular disease usually associated with Alzheimer's, which could be connected to the abnormally high level of aluminium in her brain. Michael Rose, the West Somerset Coroner, said of the findings: "Further research will be needed before the significance of the elevated brain aluminium concentration in this case can be clarified. A scientific report on the case has been submitted for publication." Cross's husband believes that 20 other people have died as a result of the disaster and that more cases are emerging. Daniel Perl, of New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine
said: "If additional similar cases were to appear among the 20,000 exposed individuals then the implications of this incident would become extremely important. Only time will tell. At the very least, increased efforts towards surveillance of individuals exposed in Camelford is certainly warranted."
Victim Sarah Sillifant, who was in her twenties when she was exposed, hanged herself in 2005 after suffering dementia and other symptoms similar to those experienced by Carol Cross. In June 2007, Irene Neal, who lived in Rock, near Camelford at the time of the incident died aged 91. A post-mortem found an "unacceptable amount of aluminium in the brain".
Rose had adjourned the inquests for Cross and Neal pending further studies, but in 2008 said the Government had refused "to either finance or assist" research to test the hypothesis of a link between exposure to aluminium and congophilic amyloid angiopathy. He said this research was necessary to determine the consequences of the deceased having such a high level of aluminium. He later sought support from Somerset County Council
so that the work could go ahead and once more adjourned the inquest into the death of Carol Cross, although Neal's inquest went ahead.
Crown Court for supplying water likely to endanger public health. The authority paid at least £123,000 to settle almost 500 initial compensation claims and in 1997 a further 148 victims accepted out-of-court damages totalling almost £400,000, approved by a High Court judge sitting in Truro
. The settlements ranged from £680 to £10,000. Some later claimed they were "railroaded" into accepting the out-of-court settlements after being told that their legal aid funding would be withdrawn if they continued with the law suit. The judge, Mr Justice Wright, said: "If the case had been contested, there would have been awesomely complex argument over how much [water] they consumed" and that they were "extraordinarily well advised to accept the offer." Cross later said: "The official medical claim from the health authority was that there was no known pathway for aluminium to be absorbed into the body. I would argue that this was a misrepresentation of scientific facts, however it was accepted by the judge [and he] instructed the jury that medical damages could not be awarded. The victims therefore received negligible compensation. This alone is adequate reason for a judicial review, since it resulted in a miscarriage of justice for the victims."
, then Minister of State for Water and Planning, emerged which stated that a police investigation into the poisoning incident was viewed as "very distracting" and that any subsequent prosecution of South West Water would also "be totally unhelpful to privatisation... and render the whole of the water industry unattractive to the City". The water authority was about to be privatised by the Conservative government of the day, leading to media speculation that commercial concerns were given priority over public health. The Western Morning News
, using a Freedom of Information Act request, also uncovered a briefing note to the then Environment Minister, Nicholas Ridley
, warning: "Those of the South West board with a commercial background are deeply concerned by the investigation."
The former North Cornwall Liberal Democrat
Member of Parliament
(MP) Paul Tyler
, now Lord Tyler, also uncovered documents contradicting the water authority's claim that it had advised consumers not to drink the water and that this advice had been given in a radio broadcast at 6am on 7 July 1988 and subsequently. The documents, relating to the prosecution of South West Water, alleged that this "was not the advice given to the public on the 6th, 7th, 8th, or indeed on the 12th," and added that the prosecution would say that the authority "misled Mr Healey (the head of the drinking water division at the Department of Environment)... There is evidence that a deliberate decision was made to conceal the truth from the public." Tyler said "I can't think of any comparable accident or mistake anywhere in Britain, particularly one involving what was a government agency, where there was no attempt to investigate what went wrong and why."
In 2001 Environment Minister Michael Meacher claimed that the Government feared what an unrestricted inquiry might find, and that "There was then a great deal of shenanigans about the terms of reference and fighting at all levels in order to limit the ambit of the committee to get the result they wanted. This inquiry was always potentially hugely damaging and hugely worrying to the establishment in terms of the way they handled the incident and clearly there are elements that want to shut it down." No named individuals were ever prosecuted and the Conservative Government succeeded in selling off the national water industry for £3.59 billion, with the sale of South West Water Authority raising around £300 million.
When the inquest was reconvened Dr. Chris Exley, a reader in bioinorganic chemistry
at Keele University
, said "The brain aluminium concentration was so high that it is highly likely that it contributed to her brain pathology, probably being responsible for the aggressive form and very early onset of the disease." Neuropathologist
Prof. Margaret Esiri, from the John Radcliffe Hospital
, said "I have never seen a case such as this at this age. I have seen one case in a woman who died aged 81 but the literature shows only a handful of cases worldwide." As a result of their evidence the inquest was again adjourned to allow South West Water Authority time to seek its own expert evidence.
Camelford
Camelford is a town and civil parish in north Cornwall, United Kingdom, situated in the River Camel valley northwest of Bodmin Moor. The town is approximately ten miles north of Bodmin and is governed by Camelford Town Council....
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
with 20 tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s of aluminium sulphate in July 1988. As the aluminium sulphate broke down it produced several tonnes of sulphuric acid
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
which "stripped a cocktail of chemicals from the pipe networks as well as lead and copper piping in people’s homes." Many people who came into contact with the contaminated water experienced a range of short-term health effects. There has been no rigorous examination or monitoring of the health of the victims since the incident, and the long-term implications for those who were poisoned remains unclear.
Cause
On 6 July 1988 John Stephens, a relief tanker driver working for Bristol-based distribution firm ISC, arrived at Lowermoor Water Treatment WorksLowermoor Water Treatment Works
The Lowermoor Water Treatment Works supplies drinking water to the north Cornwall water distribution network. Raw water is obtained from the Crowdy Reservoir, which is 3/4 mile to the north east, and which is filled predominantly by run-off and drainage from surrounding moorland...
on Bodmin Moor
Bodmin Moor
Bodmin Moor is a granite moorland in northeastern Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is in size, and originally dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history....
and found it unmanned. Being unfamiliar with the location, he had been given a key by another driver and told simply that "once inside the gate, the aluminium sulphate tank is on the left". However, the key fitted almost every lock used by the South West Water Authority
South West Water
South West Water provides drinking water and waste water services throughout Cornwall and Devon and in small areas of Dorset and Somerset. South West Water came into being in 1989 with the privatisation of the water industry...
(SWWA). After twenty minutes looking for the correct tank he tried the key on a manhole cover and when it unlocked believed he had accessed the correct tank. He poured the load of 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate, used to remove solid particles from cloudy water, into the tank, which actually held treated water prior to distribution to the consumers in Camelford. This immediately contaminated the water supply to 20,000 local people and up to 10,000 tourists. The maximum recorded aluminium concentration was 620,000 micrograms per litre compared with the maximum concentration admissible at the time by the European Community of 200 micrograms per litre.
Response
For several days the water authority insisted the water was safe, and should be mixed with orange juice to disguise the taste of the as yet unknown contaminant. One customer who telephoned the authority the day after the contamination was told "there had been some acidity, but the water was perfectly safe to drink," and was no more harmful than lemon juice. On 14 July 1988 the authority sent a circular letter to all customers "asserting that the water from the treatment works was of the right alkalinityAlkalinity
Alkalinity or AT measures the ability of a solution to neutralize acids to the equivalence point of carbonate or bicarbonate. The alkalinity is equal to the stoichiometric sum of the bases in solution...
and was safe to use and drink." Within two days, the authority suspected the source of the contamination was the erroneous delivery, which was confirmed on 12 July when the driver was asked to return to the treatment works. However, it was not until ten days later on 22 July that the authority's chairman Keith Court authorised a public notice, containing the first mention of the aluminium sulphate, to be published in the sports section of a local newspaper, the Western Morning News
Western Morning News
The Western Morning News is a politically independent daily regional newspaper founded in 1860 and covering Devon and Cornwall and parts of Somerset and Dorset.-Organisation:...
. Stephens stated that after the site meeting where he confirmed he had delivered the chemical to the wrong tank he was told by the authority "not to mention it to anyone else". The SWWA district manager, John Lewis, said they had realised within 48 hours that aluminium sulphate was the likely cause of the contamination, but Lewis claimed he was instructed by Leslie Nicks, the head of operations, not to tell the public.
Douglas Cross, a consultant biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
based in Camelford, tested the water and found that it contained "not only aluminium sulphate but other noxious substances, too. As the acidic liquid travelled from the plant into people's homes, it corroded the copper pipes and their soldered joints, made of zinc and lead." Official advice to boil the water before drinking was, according to Cross, "dangerous advice because it concentrates the contaminants. They kept flushing the pipes out for months after the incident. This will have stirred up debris in the bends and only have lengthened the amount of time the water was coming through the taps with all sorts of metals in it."
60,000 salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
and trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
were killed in the Camel
River Camel
The River Camel is a river in Cornwall, UK. It rises on the edge of Bodmin Moor and together with its tributaries drains a considerable part of North Cornwall. The river issues into the Celtic Sea area of the Atlantic Ocean between Stepper Point and Pentire Point having covered a distance of...
and Allen
River Allen, Cornwall
The River Allen in north Cornwall is one of two rivers of the same name in Cornwall in southwest England which share this name.The River Allen is a major tributary of the River Camel. It springs norrtheast of Camelford and flows south-southwest through the Allen Valley passing St Teath and St Kew...
rivers during the flushing out process. The contamination was compounded by the failure of the authority to carry out the required six-monthly cleaning of the tank, which had not been cleaned for three years leading to a build up of sludge.
A month after the contamination, Michael Waring at the Department of Health
Department of Health (United Kingdom)
The Department of Health is a department of the United Kingdom government with responsibility for government policy for health and social care matters and for the National Health Service in England along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwise devolved to the Scottish,...
(DH) wrote to every doctor in Cornwall saying that, "although he had no detailed information on what exactly was in the water or how much people might have drunk, he could assure them that no lasting ill effects would result." GK Matthews, a senior toxicologist at the DH, suggested a team of medical experts should be sent to the area immediately but a month later said he had been "overruled". The National Union of Public Employees
National Union of Public Employees
The National Union of Public Employees was a British trade union which represented public sector workers. The union was founded in 1908 as the National Union of Corporation Workers, which split from the Municipal Employees Association, following Albin Taylor's dismissal as General Secretary...
alleged that "The procedure by which the driver had access to the site was not confined to Lowermoor but is common through the authority's region. We believe this is not unconnected with reduced staffing levels and privatisation plans."
Reports and inquiries
In August 1988 a highly critical report by Dr John Lawrence, a senior ICIImperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
scientist and non-excutive member of the water authority, blamed lax procedures. He also criticised communication failures which kept information from the public.
Lowermoor Incident Health Advisory Group report
The Lowermoor Incident Health Advisory Group (LIHAG) was set up in January 1989 to provide expert advice to the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly District Health Authority on the health implications for the population of the Camelford area. In 1989 the LIHAG reported that there was no convincing evidence of a harmful build-up of aluminium and that there was no increase in ill health from poisoned water. A further enquiry by the same group in 1991 acknowledged the affair had caused "real suffering" in the community. However, Dame Barbara Clayton concluded that this was because of sensational reporting of the incident. She stated that "In our judgment it is likely that these symptoms would have occurred in the normal course of events," and the symptoms were wrongly attributed to the contamination because of "inaccurate and exaggerated" claims of health damage by scientists and the news media. When the Clayton report was released in July 1989, it caused "outrage in Camelford and wide disbelief in the scientific community." One section was later amended to read "alarming statements by pseudo-scientists" rather than "...by some scientists".COT Lowermoor Subgroup report
In June 2000 Environment minister Michael MeacherMichael Meacher
Michael Hugh Meacher is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Oldham West and Royton since 1997. Previously he had been the MP for Oldham West, first elected in 1970. On 22 February 2007 he declared that he would be standing for the Labour Leadership, challenging...
announced that there would not be an independent public inquiry, and declared "All the facts are fully known and there is no reason to believe that a public inquiry could add to that." In November 2000 the Environmental Law Centre prepared a petition to the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
calling for a Brussels-based inquiry. On 14 August 2001 the government announced that an investigation – although not a full public inquiry – in to the incident would take place. The investigation was to be undertaken by the newly formed Lowermoor Subgroup (LSG) consisting of scientific and health experts and local resident representatives, chaired by Frank Woods, a professor of medicine at the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
. Woods was also the head of the government's Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT), of which the Lowermoor team was a subgroup. Its remit was to advise on whether the incident had caused, or was expected to cause, long-term harm to human health and examine whether the existing programme of monitoring and research into the human health effects was sufficient
The report, published on 26 January 2005, was inconclusive, saying that the long-term health effects on the population were still unknown and that there was insufficient scientific information available to determine whether the health problems being experienced were caused by the contamination. Woods called for further studies and said: "We will be putting the strongest possible case to the minister. I believe carrying out that work is important, it is not something which should be dropped and pushed aside." The following year, Meacher made several criticisms of the group:
- the requirement to examine the DoH's handling of the incident was removed from the terms of reference
- no independent expert on aluminium toxicology was included in the working group
- an attempt was made to include Waring as medical adviser to the group, even though he was the author of the original letter stating that no lasting ill effects would result
- no objective testing of the exposed population was carried out
- too much reliance was placed on the water sample analysis from the South-West Water Authority, the compromised party
- the amount of sludge reported to have been in the contact tank at the time was ignored
- experts were drawn on who had potentially vested interests in the aluminium industry
- the DoH pre-released a highly misleading statement of the findings two days before the draft report was due to be made public
- the executive summary, prepared without the group's approval, and which effectively concluded that the illnesses reported bore no connection with the water poisoning, was "misleading and biased".
Two members of the LSG committee have also since claimed that the DoH previously knew that some people were at especially high risk from aluminium poisoning but deliberately suppressed this evidence to protect the government's plans for water privatisation.
Short-term
A diverse array of short term health effects was reported by members of the public who either drank the contaminated water or came into contact with it while bathing. These included:- urinary complaints;
- blistering and peelingDesquamationDesquamation , also called skin peeling, is the shedding of the outermost membrane or layer of a tissue, such as the skin.-Skin:Normal, nonpathologic desquamation of the skin occurs when keratinocytes, after moving apically over about 14 days, are individually shed unnoticeably...
of skin; - hair turning blue or green;
- diarrhoea and vomiting; and
- joint painsArthralgiaArthralgia literally means joint pain; it is a symptom of injury, infection, illnesses or an allergic reaction to medication....
.
Long-term
A 1999 report in the British Medical JournalBritish Medical Journal
BMJ is a partially open-access peer-reviewed medical journal. Originally called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988. The journal is published by the BMJ Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association...
concluded that some victims had suffered "considerable damage" to their brain function. This contradicted the 1991 LIG report telling residents that their symptoms were due to anxiety. The study was led by a consultant nephrologist
Nephrology
Nephrology is a branch of internal medicine and pediatrics dealing with the study of the function and diseases of the kidney.-Scope of the specialty:...
at John Radcliffe Hospital
John Radcliffe Hospital
The John Radcliffe Hospital is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England.It is the main teaching hospital for Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University. As such, it is a well-developed centre of medical research. It also incorporates the Medical School of the University of Oxford....
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, and was the first large-scale clinical study of the affected residents. The report stated that their symptoms were similar to those of Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, which has also been linked with large quantities of aluminium accumulating in the brain. Rejecting the findings of the LIG, the report called for further research to determine the longer term prognosis for the affected individuals and led to fresh calls for a public inquiry into the pollution incident. Although the study was carried out in 1991, its publication was delayed by the ongoing litigation between SWWA and the victims.
Victims have also reported:
- fatigue;
- fibromyalgiaFibromyalgiaFibromyalgia is a medical disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain and allodynia, a heightened and painful response to pressure. It is an example of a diagnosis of exclusion...
; - premature ageingSenescenceSenescence or biological aging is the change in the biology of an organism as it ages after its maturity. Such changes range from those affecting its cells and their function to those affecting the whole organism...
; - loss of short-term memoryAnterograde amnesiaAnterograde amnesia is a loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact. This is in contrast to retrograde amnesia, where memories...
; and - multiple chemical sensitivityMultiple chemical sensitivityMultiple chemical sensitivity is a chronic medical condition characterized by symptoms the affected person attributes to exposure to low levels of chemicals. Commonly suspected substances include smoke, pesticides, plastics, synthetic fabrics, scented products, petroleum products and paints...
.
Seven months after the contamination, one victim underwent a bone biopsy which "found a ring of aluminium like the rings you see in trees" that could not have resulted from normal aluminium absorption.
Deaths
In 2006 a post-mortem inquestInquest
Inquests in England and Wales are held into sudden and unexplained deaths and also into the circumstances of discovery of a certain class of valuable artefacts known as "treasure trove"...
into the death of Carol Cross at age 58, who was exposed to the contaminated drinking water aged 44, showed that her brain contained 23 micrograms of aluminium per gram of brain, compared to the normal brain levels of 0–2 micrograms per gram. Her death was caused by a form of early-onset beta amyloid angiopathy, a cerebro-vascular disease usually associated with Alzheimer's, which could be connected to the abnormally high level of aluminium in her brain. Michael Rose, the West Somerset Coroner, said of the findings: "Further research will be needed before the significance of the elevated brain aluminium concentration in this case can be clarified. A scientific report on the case has been submitted for publication." Cross's husband believes that 20 other people have died as a result of the disaster and that more cases are emerging. Daniel Perl, of New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine is an American medical school in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, currently ranked among the top 20 medical schools in the United States. It was chartered by Mount Sinai Hospital in 1963....
said: "If additional similar cases were to appear among the 20,000 exposed individuals then the implications of this incident would become extremely important. Only time will tell. At the very least, increased efforts towards surveillance of individuals exposed in Camelford is certainly warranted."
Victim Sarah Sillifant, who was in her twenties when she was exposed, hanged herself in 2005 after suffering dementia and other symptoms similar to those experienced by Carol Cross. In June 2007, Irene Neal, who lived in Rock, near Camelford at the time of the incident died aged 91. A post-mortem found an "unacceptable amount of aluminium in the brain".
Rose had adjourned the inquests for Cross and Neal pending further studies, but in 2008 said the Government had refused "to either finance or assist" research to test the hypothesis of a link between exposure to aluminium and congophilic amyloid angiopathy. He said this research was necessary to determine the consequences of the deceased having such a high level of aluminium. He later sought support from Somerset County Council
Somerset County Council
Somerset County Council is the county council of Somerset in the South West of England, an elected local government authority responsible for the most significant local government services in most of the county.-Area covered:...
so that the work could go ahead and once more adjourned the inquest into the death of Carol Cross, although Neal's inquest went ahead.
Legal actions against South West Water Authority
In 1991 the South West Water Authority was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £25,000 costs at ExeterExeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
Crown Court for supplying water likely to endanger public health. The authority paid at least £123,000 to settle almost 500 initial compensation claims and in 1997 a further 148 victims accepted out-of-court damages totalling almost £400,000, approved by a High Court judge sitting in Truro
Truro
Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...
. The settlements ranged from £680 to £10,000. Some later claimed they were "railroaded" into accepting the out-of-court settlements after being told that their legal aid funding would be withdrawn if they continued with the law suit. The judge, Mr Justice Wright, said: "If the case had been contested, there would have been awesomely complex argument over how much [water] they consumed" and that they were "extraordinarily well advised to accept the offer." Cross later said: "The official medical claim from the health authority was that there was no known pathway for aluminium to be absorbed into the body. I would argue that this was a misrepresentation of scientific facts, however it was accepted by the judge [and he] instructed the jury that medical damages could not be awarded. The victims therefore received negligible compensation. This alone is adequate reason for a judicial review, since it resulted in a miscarriage of justice for the victims."
Allegations of a cover-up
On 13 December 2007 Michael Rose announced that, in light of "a possible attempt to initially suppress the seriousness of the incident, I am asking the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall to hand me evidence gathered at the time of the original investigation," and for the chief constable to appoint a senior detective "to look into the allegations of a possible cover-up." A letter written from a water official to Michael HowardMichael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
, then Minister of State for Water and Planning, emerged which stated that a police investigation into the poisoning incident was viewed as "very distracting" and that any subsequent prosecution of South West Water would also "be totally unhelpful to privatisation... and render the whole of the water industry unattractive to the City". The water authority was about to be privatised by the Conservative government of the day, leading to media speculation that commercial concerns were given priority over public health. The Western Morning News
Western Morning News
The Western Morning News is a politically independent daily regional newspaper founded in 1860 and covering Devon and Cornwall and parts of Somerset and Dorset.-Organisation:...
, using a Freedom of Information Act request, also uncovered a briefing note to the then Environment Minister, Nicholas Ridley
Nicholas Ridley
Nicholas Ridley may refer to:* Henry Nicholas Ridley , English botanist* Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale , British politician* Nicholas Ridley , English clergyman...
, warning: "Those of the South West board with a commercial background are deeply concerned by the investigation."
The former North Cornwall Liberal Democrat
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) Paul Tyler
Paul Tyler, Baron Tyler
Paul Archer Tyler, Baron Tyler, CBE, DL is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom. He was a Member of Parliament from February to October 1974 and from 1992 to 2005, and now sits in the House of Lords as a life peer....
, now Lord Tyler, also uncovered documents contradicting the water authority's claim that it had advised consumers not to drink the water and that this advice had been given in a radio broadcast at 6am on 7 July 1988 and subsequently. The documents, relating to the prosecution of South West Water, alleged that this "was not the advice given to the public on the 6th, 7th, 8th, or indeed on the 12th," and added that the prosecution would say that the authority "misled Mr Healey (the head of the drinking water division at the Department of Environment)... There is evidence that a deliberate decision was made to conceal the truth from the public." Tyler said "I can't think of any comparable accident or mistake anywhere in Britain, particularly one involving what was a government agency, where there was no attempt to investigate what went wrong and why."
In 2001 Environment Minister Michael Meacher claimed that the Government feared what an unrestricted inquiry might find, and that "There was then a great deal of shenanigans about the terms of reference and fighting at all levels in order to limit the ambit of the committee to get the result they wanted. This inquiry was always potentially hugely damaging and hugely worrying to the establishment in terms of the way they handled the incident and clearly there are elements that want to shut it down." No named individuals were ever prosecuted and the Conservative Government succeeded in selling off the national water industry for £3.59 billion, with the sale of South West Water Authority raising around £300 million.
2010 inquest
In July 2009 Rose announced that the inquest into Cross's death would resume in November 2010. Rose said that "ongoing medical research would not be completed until late summer" 2010. He explained "This research is necessary to prove whether or not the high level of aluminium in Mrs Cross's brain causing her death through beta amyloid angiopathy (a form of cerebrovascular disease) on February 19, 2004, could be attributed to the aluminium sulphate placed in the public water supply at Lowermoor treatment works on July 6, 1988. This is the last adjournment I am able to agree and the inquest will commence on Monday November 1, 2010 at Taunton."When the inquest was reconvened Dr. Chris Exley, a reader in bioinorganic chemistry
Bioinorganic chemistry
Bioinorganic chemistry is a field that examines the role of metals in biology. Bioinorganic chemistry includes the study of both natural phenomena such as the behavior of metalloproteins as well artificially introduced metals, including those that are non-essential, in medicine and toxicology...
at Keele University
Keele University
Keele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...
, said "The brain aluminium concentration was so high that it is highly likely that it contributed to her brain pathology, probably being responsible for the aggressive form and very early onset of the disease." Neuropathologist
Neuropathology
Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole autopsy brains. Neuropathology is a subspecialty of anatomic pathology, neurology, and neurosurgery...
Prof. Margaret Esiri, from the John Radcliffe Hospital
John Radcliffe Hospital
The John Radcliffe Hospital is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England.It is the main teaching hospital for Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University. As such, it is a well-developed centre of medical research. It also incorporates the Medical School of the University of Oxford....
, said "I have never seen a case such as this at this age. I have seen one case in a woman who died aged 81 but the literature shows only a handful of cases worldwide." As a result of their evidence the inquest was again adjourned to allow South West Water Authority time to seek its own expert evidence.
See also
- Armley asbestos disaster
- Love CanalLove CanalLove Canal was a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, located in the white collar LaSalle section of the city. It officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, along 99th Street and Read Avenue...
- Sydney Tar PondsSydney Tar PondsThe Sydney Tar Ponds are a hazardous waste site on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.Located on the eastern shore of Sydney Harbour in the former city of Sydney , the Tar Ponds form a tidal estuary at the mouth of Muggah Creek, a freshwater stream that empties into the harbour...
- Cancer AlleyCancer AlleyCancer Alley is an area along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in the River Parishes of Louisiana, which contains numerous industrial plants....
- Abbeystead disasterAbbeystead disasterThe Abbeystead disaster occurred on the evening of 23 May 1984 when a methane gas explosion destroyed a waterworks' valve house at Abbeystead, Lancashire, England. A group of 44 visitors were inside the underground building at the time attending a public presentation by North West Water Authority ...