Have six children in one family been ‘blighted by toxic water’?

BRITAIN’S worst mass poisoning of modern times may have left six children from one family with life-long disabilities.

The Matta family live near Camelford in North Cornwall, where a huge quantity of aluminium sulphate poisoned the water supply 26 years ago. And of the seven children in the family, six have disabilities.

Last month, a Mail on Sunday special report revealed that three deaths have been linked to the incident.

Now, Christopher Exley, a professor in bioinorganic chemistry at Keele University, who has investigated the deaths, has been contacted by Sarah Matta and her husband Paul, who believe their family has been blighted by the poisoning.

The incident happened in July 1988 when a relief tanker driver accidentally dumped 20 tons of aluminium sulphate – a chemical used to keep drinking water clear – directly into the water supply instead of into a storage tank at Camelford’s Lowermoor water treatment works.

As a ten-year-old, Sarah unwittingly drank the heavily contaminated water.

The eldest of the couple’s children, Sophie, 11, was born 15 years after the event. The youngest affected child, Louie, is two.

For years the couple have struggled to understand why their children – two of whom use wheelchairs – have problems including delayed development, anxiety issues, speech problems and possible autism. In 2012, a blood test found Mrs Matta, 36, had aluminium levels in her blood 20 times higher than normal.

Professor Exley said: ‘Could that impact on her children? It could.

‘Aluminium is toxic. Studies in animals show that if you feed mothers aluminium in the water supply, the offspring will exhibit developmental problems.’

He fears hundreds of children born since 1988 to the 20,000 people estimated to have drunk the contaminated water could also be at risk.

Six of Mrs Matta’s children – Sophie, 11; Katie, ten; Olivia, eight; Luke, six; Harry, four; and Louie, two – suffer from joint disease Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.