Mothers blamed themselves for hushed-up toxin deformed babies
MOTHERS of children born with severe deformities blamed themselves before they finally proved to be part of the worst child poisoning case since thalidomide, a documentary reveals.
The parents, of Corby, Northamptonshire, told of their heartache and of having to fight a cover-up by the council over its botched handling of reclamation of an old steelworks.
Their lengthy battle for justice was described as “the British Erin Brockovich”, after the US mother and campaigner who exposed an energy giant poisoning the local water supply.
Now, three decades on from the scandal, there is still a fear the toxins the children were exposed to could cause illnesses like cancer.
BBC Two’s Horizon interviewed three mothers and experts who battled for the truth of what caused a cluster of children born with severe deformities, especially of the hands, in the 1990s.
The steelworks, once the biggest in Europe, closed in the 1980s. To regenerate the stricken town, the council began cleaning up toxic waste sites, removing contaminated soil in uncovered dumper trucks.
But the women breathed in the dust containing toxic chemicals and the harm to their unborn child was only apparent after birth. Lisa Atkinson’s daughter Simone was born with both hands affected. Lisa said: “Something so bad had changed my child so significantly it was going to affect her for the rest of her life. And she wasn’t the only child. Was it something I could have done differently, was it something in my pregnancy in the early stages that I have done wrong?”
Simone said: “Surely the council could not have done something that bad and that careless? My mum had so many questions and never got any answers.”
When the story of the three mothers was first published, more families came forward but the council continued to deny a link between its clean-up and the birth defects.
It refused to release any documents and the breakthrough finally came when a whistleblower sent papers to a solicitor for the families.
Soil contamination expert Roger Braithwaite said: “A toxic soup of dust was hanging over a town.”
In 2009 the High Court ruled the council was negligent in the clean-up from 1985 to 1997 and the council agreed compensation for 19 children.
Lisa said: “Do I think it will be the last time we will see a case like that? Probably not.we are too nonchalant about the way we do things.”
● Toxic Town: The Corby Poisoning, BBC Two, tomorrow, 9pm.
‘A toxic soup was over town’