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UK Birth Defect Victims Win 'Toxic Soup' Case

29th July 2009

A group who blame their disabilities on their mothers' exposure to toxic materials have won their case against the council they hold accountable. The London High Court found that toxic materials released by Corby Borough County's steel plant could have contributed to 18 children's disabilities.

Mr Justice Akenhead told the court that it was possible that toxic dust released from restoration of the plant between 1983 and 1997 could have entered private homes. He noted that the chemicals could have been inhaled by pregnant women in Corby and be the cause of the birth defects.

The children have called the air around Corby at the time an "atmospheric soup of toxic materials". Justice Akenhead said: "Corby Borough Council is liable in public nuisance, negligence and breach of statutory duty, obviously subject to it being established in later proceedings by individual claimants that their particular conditions were actually caused by the defaults identified in this judgment."

The ruling is the first time that a court has found that the plant's materials were capable of causing serious deformities in babies.

Corby Borough Council said it was disappointed with the result but would now consider its position carefully.

In order for the children to claim compensation off the council, they must prove that the toxic materials actually caused their deformities, rather than just that they were capable of it.

Story reproduced from skynews.com




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