Camelford Water Disaster

[Guest guest]

A post-mortem test on a woman who drank water during the Camelford

water poisoning incident has found abnormally high levels of

aluminium in her brain.

It is the strongest evidence yet of a possible link between the

poisoning and a disease similar to Alzheimer's.

 

Water in the Cornish town was contaminated with 20 tonnes of

aluminium sulphate in 1988.

 

Hundreds of people said they became ill after the toxic chemical was

put into the wrong tank at a treatment works.

 

West Somerset Coroner Michael Rose released the post-mortem

examination results on Thursday.

 

He asked leading neuropathologist Prof Margaret Esiri to examine the

woman's brain and spinal cord following her death in Musgrove Park

Hospital, Taunton, in February last year.

 

Further research will be needed before the significance of the

elevated brain aluminium concentration... can be clarified

 

The woman was living in Camelford at the time of the incident.

 

It was discovered that she died from beta amyloid angiopathy, a form

of cerebrovascular disease usually associated with Alzheimer's

disease, which could be connected to an abnormally high level of

aluminium in her brain.

 

Mr Rose said: " 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.

The inquest will stand adjourned until the completion of further

research. "

 

In the 17 years since the disaster at Lowermoor Treatment Works,

local people have complained of a range of health issues ranging from

brain damage and memory loss to joint problems.

 

Campaigners said the findings supported their claims, but criticised

the authorities' failure to carry out any targeted post mortem

examinations on water poisoning victims until now.

 

The accident itself was a real disaster, but the subsequent cover-

up was a scandal

 

Lib Dem peer Lord Tyler, until this year the MP for North Cornwall,

said the " scandalous cover-up " of the incident was gradually

unravelling.

 

" Inevitably, this investigation will be too late for some victims,

and has been thwarted by inadequate medical records and lax

monitoring of the 20,000 people, including many children, whose

health may have been affected, " he said.

 

" But better late than never. The accident itself was a real disaster,

but the subsequent cover-up was a scandal.

 

" The coroner's conclusions today add substantially to the weight of

evidence and provide a devastating example of past failures.

 

" However, at long last there is a real chance that justice will be

seen to be done, and realistic compensation considered. "

 

Denis Cronin, the director of public health at the North and East

Cornwall Primary Care Trust, said while he welcomed the new

information, people should not be alarmed by the results of a single

post mortem examination.

 

In 1991, the then South West Water Authority was convicted at Exeter

Crown Court of supplying water likely to endanger public health and

fined £10,000, with £25,000 costs.

 

Three years later 148 people won an out-of-court settlement totalling

£400,000.

 

A draft independent report into the incident, the third to be carried

out, said in January it was unlikely that the chemicals involved in

the incident would have caused any delayed or persistent health

effects.

 

 

No conclusive link was found between the incident and the chronic

symptoms and diseases.