Whistleblower says toxic waste area bigger than just Corby
A former contractor who loaded waste onto lorries from Corby's former steelworks has claimed that toxic material was knowingly dumped around the town.
Despite the local council acknowledging just one official dumping ground in Corby, a whistleblower who worked clearing the steelworks site has claimed there were 'at least four or five hotspots in Corby' where toxic waste was dumped.
Some families in Corby have told ITV News they are worried about the public health risk this poses, fearing the number of people affected by the industrial pollution could be far bigger than previously thought.
Lawyer Des Collins, who led the 2009 High Court case linking industrial pollution in Corby to birth defects, has written to North Northamptonshire Council demanding that it publish a full list of contaminated sites amid concerns that waste caused wider health issues. He is now urging the government to launch a public inquiry, a move backed by two local MPs.
The contractor, who asked to remain anonymous, worked loading lorries with toxic material.
'Everyone knew the waste was going to where it shouldn't be going,' he said, 'it was contaminated waste, and it should have been going to the contaminated tip.'
Corby, once a thriving steel town in Northamptonshire, was left with one of Europe's largest industrial clean-up operations after the industry collapsed in the 1980s.
Over the following decade, waste from the former steelworks was dug up and moved across the town in open-top lorries, spreading toxic dust through the air and across the community.
In 2009, 18 families in Corby won a landmark High Court case linking airborne exposure to birth defects in children. But some residents believe that the health risks extend well beyond that original group and contamination may still be affecting people.
The renewed campaign for answers comes after the release of Netflix drama Toxic Town, which revisited the 2009 court case. Eight-year-old Fraser was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of blood cancer at just 17 months old. / Credit: ITV News
Eight-year-old Fraser was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of blood cancer at just 17 months old. His parents say his condition is so rare, it doesn't even have a name.
Andrew and Alison believe their son's battle with cancer may have been entirely avoidable, caused by toxic waste improperly disposed of in the local area.
They say they began noticing other children from Corby on the same cancer wards during Fraser's treatment.
'I'd be on the ward going, 'oh my goodness I know them',' Alison told ITV News, 'We'd approach nurses and they'd say 'there are so many families from Corby that are on here.''
'It's become the norm in Corby,' added father Andrew, 'more than just a rarity.'
Mr Collins, who represented the original families in 2009, has now formally written to the local council demanding greater transparency over, and a full inquiry from the government.
'We're going to ask the council to tell us exactly where this stuff is buried, and if they don't know, why don't they know?' he said.
'It was only a small proportion that became airborne as it moved across the town; the remaining 99% of it probably went into landfill.' Lawyer Des Collins, who led the 2009 High Court case linking industrial pollution in Corby to birth defects. / Credit: ITV News
Mr Collins believes the toxic material is still causing health problems for those in the community, saying, 'if they didn't know how to dig it up and they didn't know how to move it, they possibly didn't know how to bury it.'
Two local MPs, Lee Barron and Rosie Whiting, have now joined calls for a public inquiry.
Labour MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire, Lee Baron, told ITV that childhood cancer in the area 'needs to be looked into.'
'It's only right and proper that those with the answers start to come to the fore,' he said. 'They deserve that at least.'
The contractor who loaded the lorries says he doesn't believe anyone involved acted with malice, stating that workers simply didn't understand the risks.
'I don't think anyone had the forethought of what damage would occur in later years,' he said.
When asked why he didn't raise concerns with managers at the time, he said, 'you're going back to the 1990s. It was a different world. You put up, shut up, and got on with it.'
North Northamptonshire Council said they are exploring child cancer rates in the area after recently being 'approached by some residents who have concerns around childhood cancers in Corby.'
'It should be possible to describe rates of childhood cancer diagnoses over a period of time for children resident in Corby, and to give an indication of whether this is in line with what would be expected.
It is, though, important to note that if any variation was identified, this analysis would not be able to identify the cause of that variation.'
'In 2001, officers from the former Corby Borough Council carried out a review of all sites that could be identified as potentially contaminated land.'
'Gas and water sampling takes place on a yearly basis as part of the requirements of the permit,' they said.
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In fact, there is no evidence to show that DES was withdrawn or restricted, despite mounting evidence of the drug's sinister side effects. Dr Sonia Macleod, from Oxford University and an expert on pharmaceutical safety, said, "There are clear indications that more could and should have been done by the regulators at the time, and if you look at it in this way, that becomes a regulatory failure." Dr Macleod believes the government bears ultimate responsibility for the impact on women. "I think women have been hugely failed in the UK, and particularly because this was a drug that was developed through government funding," she said. "There must be accountability and responsibility. Compensation should come from the government. The impacts are horrendous and have been ignored and unseen. It is so wrong," she said. Dr Sonia Macleod, from Oxford University and an expert on pharmaceutical safety. On the south coast in Bognor Regis, Mary Jarman believes she was given DES in 1977, years after warnings about the drug. Then aged 19, she was prescribed the pills by her GP to stop her breast milk after giving birth prematurely. Ms Jarman later suffered a severe reaction, resulting in emergency breast surgery. 'It was a drug that nobody should have had, and they realised what it was doing, they should have stopped it. But I think because I had an old family doctor, they just kept handing it out,' she said. Decades later, in her 40s, she developed cervical cancer and had a full hysterectomy. "If that has caused all the trouble, now I can understand I wasn't just unlucky to have all those women's problems, it was all connected." Mary Jarman believes she was given DES in 1977, years after warnings about the drug. Poor NHS record keeping and the casual way DES was given out means women may never know for sure what they were exposed to or the long-term impact it has had. There are growing calls for a nationwide investigation. There has still been no attempt to trace and inform those exposed to this dangerous drug, and limited research into the long-term health implications. While thousands of DES victims have sued pharmaceutical companies in the US, France, and the Netherlands, there have been no successful cases in the UK. In response to our investigation, Dr Alison Cave, MHRA Chief Safety Officer, said: "We express our sympathies with those harmed by the historic use of Diethylstilbestrol (DES). "We are continuing to invest significant resources to locate historical documentation relating to regulatory decisions on DES made in the 1970s, over 50 years ago. Due to the age and format of the records, this is a complex and time-consuming process. "We are living now in a different regulatory era….Today, the requirement for patients to be directly provided with information about their medicine is underpinned by legislation." look seriously at these allegations. Health Secretary, Wes Streeting.
