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The University of Plymouth, September 1998
The conference explored the lessons of the Lowermoor incident in July 1988, when drinking water supplies to 20,000 people in North Cornwall were heavily contaminated with aluminium sulphate. Twenty tonnes of the water treatment chemicals were accidentally dumped in the wrong tank at the Lowermoor water treatment works operated by the former South West Water Authority.
The conference heard a presentation from an eminent neurotoxicologist, Professor Donald McLachlan, which suggested that the existing legal limit on aluminium in drinking water may not provide adequate safeguards for public health. The present limit is 200 microgrammes of aluminium per litre of water. According to Professor Donald McLachlan, a large scale, officially sponsored study in Ottawa, Canada, has found a significantly increased risk factor for Alzheimer's disease among individuals exposed to aluminium concentrations in drinking water above 110 microgrammes per litre for five years or more. The risk increased with increasing aluminium concentration.
Discussed at the conference were the following issues:
Day 1 - Scientific/Medical Session Programme
- The need to learn the lessons
- Contaminant uptake in exposed population and livestock
- Associations between food allergies and maladaptive behaviours
- Behavioural pattern of chemically exposed people
- Autopsy confirmed risk of Alzheimer's disease associated with long term elevated concentrations of aluminium in municipal drinking water
- A homeopath's experience of treating Lowermoor patients
- The ecological impacts of the Lowermoor incident
- Guidance for the improved management of future incidents
Day 2 - Legal/Civil Rights Session Programme
- A journalist's difficulties in obtaining information about pollution incidents
- Environmental advice and assistance available from the voluntary sector
- Redress available for chemically exposed people in the UK
- Redress via human rights courts for chemically exposed people
- The fight for social justice by the victims of the Lowermoor water poisoning incident 6th July 1988
- Environmental Justice Foundation: an alternative to the present Legal aid Lottery
Speakers at this conference included:
- Mr David Grantham, environmental engineer
- Dr. Neil Ward, analytical chemist
- Peter Bennett, Policing and Health
- Dr Kartar Badsha, environmental toxicologist
- Professor Emeritus Donald McLachlan, neurotoxicologist
- Peter Smith, registered homeopath
- Doug Cross, consultant ecologist
- Paul Tyler CBE, Member of Parliament for North Cornwall
- Vera Chaney, Green Network
- Jane Jones, National Pure Water Association
- William Merrick, environmental lawyer > Review Adobe ¨
- Nicola Rogers, human rights barrister
- Harjindar Bahra, environmental lawyer
- Doreen Skudder, Lowermoor campaigner > [Review] ¨
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