A Case Study on the Camelford Water Pollution Incident in the UK

This case study explores the Camelford water pollution incident in the UK, focusing on the contamination of the town's water supply with aluminum sulphate in 1988. The incident led to severe health issues for the local population, including skin problems, gastrointestinal issues, and neurological effects. The report discusses the scenario, its impact on residents, and the methods used to investigate the issues, such as observation, focus groups, and information finding. Ethical challenges arising from the incident are also addressed. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of water conservation and responsible environmental practices to prevent similar incidents, referencing various books, journals, and online articles to support its analysis.

Water Pollution

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Region and Scenario description.................................................................................................1
Methods to explore issues...........................................................................................................3
Ethical challenges .......................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
References:.......................................................................................................................................5
Online..........................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
The conservation of ecological environment is the duty of the human being as the
environment provide the human with all the basic necessities to survive. The environment is rich
with natural elements such as water, air, food, shelter etc. which is essential for any human to
survive. But with the increasing human activities and industrialization huge harm is been done
on the environment and its resources. Thus is leading to the degradation of environment and
pollution. In the environmental science there are three types of pollution air, water and noise
pollution. For any human the water is very important resource for survival and also to conduct
other activities related to daily routines, in industries etc. As usage water is not limited to the
drinking it is used for many other purpose on the earth. All the other usage is making the water
polluted to high level in some regions. The water pollution refers to the contamination of the
water and water bodies which is resulting into dirty water to drink, death of water species etc.
The present report aims to discuss the water pollution ad its impact in certain region of the UK.
The report will outline one key impact scenario of pollution on local population. Further
appropriate means to research is discussed and three ethical issues are reflected in the report.
MAIN BODY
Region and Scenario description
UK is the large country and has different small states, cities and regions. In UK there is
town called Camelford. This town is the civil parish in north of Cornwall, England, UK. The
town is located in the River Camel Valley in the Northwest of the Bodmin Moor. Earlier the
town is governed by the Camel Town council but now after the election of 2021 the town is
governed under the supervision of Camelford and Boscastle division. The two main industrial
enterprise of this area are the slate quarry and the cheese factory. At this region of UK the place
of interest are museums and gallery, Slaughterbridge, hills and valleys.
As per the modern history of the Camelford town the town has huge scandal of water
pollution. The town has to face issue of contaminated water supply which caused the huge
impact on the health of the local people for the long run. The scenario of this huge water
pollution incident is that in July 1988 the drinking water of the town Cornwall was positioned or
contaminated by the 20 tons of aluminium sulphate solution. This scenario is known as the
Camelford water pollution incident. The inadvertently addition of the solution of aluminium
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sulphate into the water supply raised the concentration to 3000 times the consumable level. Due
to this incident of the water pollution as the aluminium sulphate broke there was chemical
reaction and sulphuric acid was derived which later striped the huge amount of chemicals from
the pipe networks and also from the lead and copper pipes in the homes of citizens. The people
those who were in contact with such water experienced range of health effects and become
victims of long term unheard diseases. Even there where occurrence of death and when the
inquest was done it was found that there was lots of aluminium in their brain. The royal
commission on the environmental pollution led an enquiry into the incidents.
This incident was also refereed as the Camelford positioning which made the drinkable
water a black water. The impact of this water pollution was highly quick and frightening for the
local population of the Camelford, Cornwall. By the local population the black water was
observed from the taps. This water pollution scenario has created the impact on the skin of the
population as their was clinging of skin, curdling of milk, hairs stuck together as if smeared with
the glue. After sometime, the local people started complaining and addressing there illness those
who have drink or bathed with the contaminated water. The people were impacted by the wrong
tank water and were facing the diseases like stomach cramps, skin rashes, diarrhoea, aching
joints and mouth ulcers. Also there was the rare brain diseases after drinking or consuming the
water which was contaminated due to the aluminium sulphate. This human error of pouring the
water into wrong tank has made the history into the modern British history.
With the growing years it was observed that the the chemicals that were used to treat the
cloudy water where going straightly into the town's main supply causing harm to the human
health. Despite of the large number of complaints from the public of the Camelford, the South
West Water Authority stated that the water is safe to drink and tried to conduct the fraud by
advising the customers to camouflage the foul taste by mixing with the orange juice. Also the
many local people reported the complainants of suffering from different range of side effects and
some said there hairs where turning green from copper residues. Also there was incident due to
this water contamination incident a man flushed in this wash room and the gas- like fog caused
the severe nosebleed. Also the animals were died by drinking this water. As per the report of the
Lowermoor Subgroup of the committee on Toxicity of the chemicals in Food (CoT) resulted that
that contamination of the water is likely to create a delayed harm to health.
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Methods to explore issues
There are different methods to explore the issues faced by the local people of the
Camelford. Observation is one the method that is very useful and help in exploring the issues
related to the water pollution occurred in the Cornwall town. By observing the the different
articles and online articles on different website it is was easy to explore and search for the
different issues. Observation is the strong method that is helpful in collecting the facts and
figures related to the scenario of collecting the information related to the each issue of the water
pollution incident happened due to human carelessness of the driver.
The another method of exploring the issue of the above scenario and its impact on the
citizens and population of the Camelford is through focus. The focus is effective technique by
which the issues related to the contaminated water were defined and in most effective manner
and it become easy to focus on areas that are more severely affected. Through this method the
people affected by the water pollution are been observed and their response towards the pollution
and its impact is also recorded.
The step of exploring the issues of the above water pollution scenario in Camelford town also
includes find. This method is all about finding the sources and places where the issue has
happened in order to have better understanding for the review and also to find the solution for the
issue. Also through this the reactions, and opinions of the local population of the Camelford is
identified through different range of questions. This method of exploring the issues and impact
of water pollution incident in Camelford, Cornwall city is helpful in the gathering the
information from different sources and viewpoints. The filtration is also the way to explore the
issue by this the irrelevant information can be rejected and removed from the study in order to
have better answers and results. Through filtration the extra hypothetical information spread by
the local citizens in the town due to the water contamination regarding the black water or its
impacts which are not real can be mitigated or vanished.
Ethical challenges
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CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that for the survival of the human water is very important
aspect that the humans should conserve and take care of.
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References:
Books and Journals
Ighalo, J.O and et. al., 2021. A systematic literature analysis of the nature and regional
distribution of water pollution sources in Nigeria. Journal of Cleaner Production, 283,
p.124566.
Chen, H and et. al., 2020. A deep learning CNN architecture applied in smart near-infrared
analysis of water pollution for agricultural irrigation resources. Agricultural Water
Management, 240, p.106303.
Canter, L.W., 2020. Ground water pollution control. CRC Press.
Ali, S and et. al., 2021. Water Pollution: Diseases and Health Impacts. Freshwater Pollution and
Aquatic Ecosystems: Environmental Impact and Sustainable Management, p.1.
Duan, W. and Takara, K., 2020. Impacts of Climate and Human Activities on Water Resources
and Quality: Integrated Regional Assessment. Springer Nature.
Mir, R.H and et. al., 2020. Role of environmental pollutants in Alzheimer’s disease: a
review. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27(36), pp.44724-44742.
Perkins, A., 2021. Life and Death Rays: Radioactive Poisoning and Radiation Exposure. CRC
Press.
Russ, T.C and et. al., 2020. Aluminium and fluoride in drinking water in relation to later
dementia risk. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 216(1), pp.29-34.
Online
The Camelford poisoning: black water, a driver's mistake and 'terrible' advice,2021,
[Online], Available through:<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/mar/14/camelford-
water-poisoning-inquest>
Camelford water poisoning: Calls for new inquiry,2021 ,[Online], Available
through:<https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-44727036>
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