Camelford poisoning: Search for answers

The health impact of the pollution will be studied

By BBC environment correspondent Tim Hirsch

Environment Minister Michael Meacher is to announce a new investigation into one of Britain's worst water poisoning incidents.

It will look into the long-term health impacts of the contamination of the public water supply at Camelford, in North Cornwall, in 1988, when a lorry driver accidentally dumped 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at a treatment works.

A total of 20,000 homes were affected, and local people complained of a wide range of health problems ranging from mouth ulcers to vomiting and rashes.

At the time, a government health panel concluded that there should be no long-term effects.

Michael Meacher travelled to Camelford last year

But two years after the incident, about 400 people were suffering from symptoms which they attributed to the pollution.

These included loss of concentration and short-term memory.

They were told that this could be explained by anxiety about the contamination, but residents continued to campaign for a public inquiry.

Their case was boosted in 1999 when a study of 55 victims for the British Medical Journal by experts from the John Radcliffe Hospital suggested that the chemical did cause "considerable damage" to their brain functions.

This conclusion was disputed by other experts who criticised the way the study was carried out.

But Mr Meacher travelled to Camelford last year to hear for himself the case for a new inquiry into the contamination and its effects.

He is now convinced that a new investigation is justified, though it will fall short of the public inquiry being called for by local residents.

Details will be set out on Tuesday by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

In 1991 the South West Water Authority, which ran the treatment works, was fined £10,000 with £25,000 costs at Exeter Crown Court.

Three years later nearly 150 residents accepted out-of-court damages ranging from £700 to £10,000.