Poisoned Futures

Sunday Mirror - 17th March, 2002 (Nick Constable)

Children who lived through Britain’s worst mass water-poisoning incident are facing a heightened risk of severe learning problems, a Sunday Mirror investigation reveals today.

The so-called Camelford water babies – young children who in 1988 were exposed to massive levels of aluminium sulphate following a blunder at the North Cornwall town’s water works – are now at secondary school.

Figures show that between 1998 and 2000 the percentage with full statements for special educational needs in the area hit an extraordinary peak – more than double the national average.

Analysis by an independent statistician records the increase as ‘very highly significant’ for both 1998 and 1999. In 2000 the effect is less marked, but still ‘highly significant’.

Our investigation – described by North Cornwall Lib Dem MP Paul Tyler as of ‘crucial importance’ – comes as child health experts prepare to visit Camelford for a major new Department of Health inquiry into the poisoning scandal.

It is being run by the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment, chaired by Professor Frank Woods, of Sheffield University.

If a link between contaminated water and brain-damaged children is established it will open the floodgates for multi-million compensation claims against the insurers of South West Water Authority, which ran Camelford’s Lowermoor Treatment Works.

The utility was later privatised as South West Water Plc.

Mr Tyler said: ‘‘From the very outset I have been especially concerned about the possible effect of the aluminium poisoning on small children and unborn babies.

‘There’s a great deal of medical evidence which demonstrates that young bodies would be particularly susceptible.

‘Given that children affected by Lowermoor may still have an opportunity to claim compensation it is particularly important to get to the bottom of this. The North Cornwall SEN statistics raise as many questions as they answer.

‘In all fairness to the families concerned - and to ensure we learn lessons for the future - we must make sure these figures are properly evaluated. I hope the official investigation will insist on seeing all the data.

‘If necessary, there must be further research to establish why such comparatively high proportions of North Cornwall secondary school children, in three specific year groups, have full statements for special educational needs.’

Consultant ecologist Doug Cross, a member of the Woods inquiry team, said: ‘We know from a study of pigs affected by the poisoned water that their young had lower survival rates and growth problems.

‘We must now take seriously the possible effects on children. The SEN statistics for North Cornwall are vitally important in this investigation.’

Fears about the effects of the aluminium have persisted in Camelford for years – despite initial scientific inquiries blaming symptoms on ‘anxiety’.

A local GP, Dr Richard Newman, noted patients with memory problems within four months of the water contamination.

But it was not until 1999 that a study of 55 residents by consultant nephrologist Dr Paul Altmann, published in the British Medical Journal, concluded it was ‘highly probable’ that aluminium poisoning caused brain damage in some Camelford residents.

He found that three out of four had a dysfunction in their brain and nervous system.

Up to now however there has been no proper analysis of the aluminium’s effect on unborn babies and young children.

The only published data relied on psychological ‘Richmond Tests’ carried out on 20 11-year-old children in 1989.

The Department of Education admitted at the time that these could not measure brain damage caused by poisoning and were effectively useless.

Yet as recently as December last year Cornwall’s Director of Education Jonathan Harris was quoting this study as indicating ‘no real evidence for any long-term effects on children’s learning’.

In a letter to Mr Tyler he blames the North Cornwall SEN statistics on ‘the lack of access to any specialist provision in that area’.

The figures obtained by the Sunday Mirror compare the percentages of SEN secondary schoolchildren across Cornwall with those specifically educated in North Cornwall.

The statistics cover some 30,000 pupils a year between 1997 and 2001. The county council says that before 1997, SEN assessment involved a different criteria which is not comparable.

Throughout the period the county-wide number of pupils with full SEN statements hardly fluctuates, with returns of 5%, 5.2%, 5.3%, 5.1% and 4.7%.

This is well above the national average of 3% over those five years.

In North Cornwall however there is a big leap between 1998 and 2000. The same five years show a return of 5.4%, 6.4%, 6.3%, 5.9% and 4.6%.

In 1998 this translated to 349 North Cornwall secondary school children with full statements at a time when, according to the county average, the number should have been 283.

The statistican consulted by the Sunday Mirror – a senior university professor of mathematics – used basic ‘chisquare’ tests in his analysis.

He concluded: ‘The figures do not show a clear trend but they do suggest differences in some years which are well in excess of what could reasonably be ascribed to chance on the basis of independent, individual SEN judgements using a consistent standard.’

Statisticians using chisquare regard a ‘p-value’ of 0.05 (1 in 20) as significant. The smaller the p-value the greater the significance.

The 1998 figures for North Cornwall produced a p-value of 0.000009087. Even 0.001 would have been classed ‘very highly significant’.

At present the two main secondary schools in the area – Sir James Smith Community School at Camelford and Wadebridge School – both have SEN levels close to the 3% national average.

The figures for primary pupils between 1997 and 2001 show no SEN blip. Percentages for the whole of Cornwall and the north of the county are strikingly similar – between 3% and 3.6%