‘Highly likely’ chemical in water contributed to death
Scientists tell an inquest it was “highly likely” that aluminium sulphate accidentally-added to the Cornwall water supply 22 years ago contributed to a woman’s early death, writes Julian Rush.
The inquest into the death of Carole Cross – an alleged victim of poisoning at Camelford in North Cornwall – has been adjourned.
Carole Cross died in 2004, aged 59 – 16 years after a relief driver inadvertently poured aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at the Lowermoor water treatment works, turning the water supply for 20,000 people into a highly acidic cocktail contaminated with metals.
Those who bathed in the water reported their hair sticking to their bodies; those who drank it reported a range of health problems, including stomach cramps, skin rashes, diarrhoea, mouth ulcers and aching joints.
Autopsy
An autopsy revealed that Mrs Cross was suffering from an extremely unusual brain disease similar to Alzheimer’s.
Dr Chris Exley of Keele University, a world expert on aluminium, told the West Somerset Coroner Michael Rose that she had abnormally high levels of aluminium in her brain tissue which it was “highly likely contributed towards her unusual brain pathology and was probably responsible for the aggressive form and early onset of the disease”.
Alzheimer’s scientist Dr Margaret Asiri, of Oxford University – a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists – told the Coroner she had only ever seen one other similar case, in a woman 20 years older.
Mrs Cross, she said, was suffering from Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA), where the blood vessels in her brain are lined with a protein called Beta-Amyloid. CAA is common in much older Alzheimer’s patients but in Mrs Cross’s case, the other symptoms of Alzheimer’s were absent.
Dr Asiri said genetic tests had revealed that Mrs Cross was one of only 3 per cent of the population who had a genetic variation that made her susceptible to developing Alzheimer’s in old age.
Brain tests
In order to find out if the aluminium had caused the CAA, Dr Exley examined 50 brains from a brain bank at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. He found no evidence to suggest aluminium directly caused the brain disease from this sample, though recent experiments in Italy on mice has indicated that it may.
The research, carried out at the request of the Coroner, was funded by Somerset County Council after the Department of Health and the Ministry of Justice felt the case did not justify them paying for the research.
Dr Exley told the Coroner that more research could be commissioned to test the aluminium levels in others who had drunk the Camelford water to prevent any other potential deaths. Drinking mineral water with a high silicon content like Volvic, he said, flushes aluminium from the body.
Adjourned
The inquest was adjourned to allow the South West Water Authority – the public body which at the time supplied water to Camelford – to commission scientists to examine the new research.
In earlier evidence, the Coroner has heard the former head of the Authority, Keith Court, admit that he had suppressed vital information at the time of the poisoning because he didn’t want to cause “undue alarm”. The public and local health officials were kept in the dark about what had happened and told there was no risk to public health for three weeks until an advert placed in the sports pages of a local newspaper revealed the true cause.
The incident happened in the run-up to water privatisation and Mr Court admitted he’d discussed how to handle the situation with Michael Healey, a senior official at the Department of the Environment. Mr Healey wrote a memo to the then Environment Secretary, Michael Howard, saying there were fears that any prosecution over the incident threatened the plans for water privatisation.