Camelford water poisoning cover up:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/4531668.stm
"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.
Inquest adjourned
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
Michael Rose, coroner
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."
'Past failures'
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.
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.
Out-of-court settlement
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."
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127323/
Anthony David writes:
"The reopening of the Camelford case is regrettable as the people concerned may worry anew about their health.
Wessely and I recommended that incidents such as these should trigger a rapid response by public health professionals to gather complete data before litigation, media attention, and local fears distort health perception. It seems that such lessons have still to be learnt."
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http://ruscombegreen.blogspot.com/2008/01/safe-water-camelford-cover-up-plus.html
"Interestingly one of the primary architects of this lethal cover-up was psychiatrist Professor Simon Wessely - has has been notorious for his equally scandalous cover-ups of the biomedical plight of Gulf War Veterans and ME/CFS ...
...In the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Vol 39, No 1. pp.1 9. 1995, Wessely together with his colleague Anthony David, published a paper entitled 'The Legend Of Camelford : Medical Consequences Of A Water Pollution Accident' "There was little cause for concern," announced Wessely.
He also accused Camelford residents of somatisation and the media of irresponsible reporting of this water-poisoning incident. Wessely apparently also blamed those affected of sensationalising their symptoms in order to get compensation.
Here is one recent comment from a Green party member: "It was a scandal. As in the Black Report on the Seascale leukaemias,
they used the scholastic method, not the scientific method, to decide that there was no causal link between the chemicals in the water and the symptoms suffered." "