User talk:AQUA PUREST

CORNWELL WATER DISASTER The Camelford water pollution incident involved the accidental contamination of the drinking water supply to the town of Camelford, Cornwall, England with 20 tonnes 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.

Aluminium sulphate, alternatively spelt aluminium sulphate, or aluminium sulphate; is a chemical compound with the formula Al2(SO4)3. Aluminium sulphate is mainly used as a flocculating agent in the purification of drinking water and waste water treatment plants, and also in paper manufacturing. CAUSE

On 6 July 1988 a relief tanker driver, John Stephens, arriving at Lower moor Water Treatment Works on Bodmin Moor, 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). He tried it on the first manhole cover he found 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

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 hadn't 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."

REPORTS AND INQUIRIES

In August 1988 a highly critical report by Dr John Lawrence, a senior ICI 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 Meacher 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, Melcher 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 Warring 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.

Health effects

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 peeling of skin •	hair turning blue or green •	diarrhoea and vomiting •	joint pains A 1999 report in the British Medical Journal 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 nephrologists 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: •	fatigue •	fibromyalgia •	premature ageing •	loss of short-term memory •	multiple chemical sensitivity 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 inquest 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 amyloidal 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.[37][38][39] 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 Exeter 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." 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 Howard, 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. 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.