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A High Court ruling made in July 2009 paved the way for upwards of 70 families to make UK personal injury claims against Corby Borough Council after it was found that their handling of the British Steel plant reclamation in the town was negligent.
During the 1980s and 1990s the council controlled the clean-up operation on the huge steelworks site in Corby, however, from 1889 to 1999 there was a "statistically significant" cluster of babies in the area or with links to the town who were born with defects to their hands and feet, including missing or underdeveloped fingers and toes, whilst others had heart defects, eye problems and skin conditions.
The judge held that under the under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the council were liable for public nuisance and in breach of its duty of care having exposed the pregnant mothers to an "atmospheric soup of toxic materials".
Evidence given by experts said that 15 years of poorly regulated procedures had polluted the Northamptonshire town and the judges finding that there was a link between atmospheric toxic waste from the plant and the birth defects suffered by the claimants.
The lawyer representing the families said, "This is the first time a civil court in this country – and quite possibly anywhere in the world – has connected birth defects and the negligent release of toxic waste in the atmosphere and put the two together.
"It required a huge chain to establish this potential causation. We had to demonstrate the toxic substances could be released in sufficiently small particles to travel sufficiently far, and then be inhaled by mothers at relevant times in pregnancy and cause these problems."
The ruling meant that the young victims of the pollution, aged at the time between nine and 21 years old, could go on to seek UK personal injury damages. The establishment of causation - whether a direct link in the defects they had suffered could be made to the release of toxic materials from the site – would be decided in further hearings.
A chief executive for Corby Borough Council said, "We are obviously very disappointed and very surprised at the outcome of this trial. Our position has always been that there was no link between the reclamation work that was carried out in Corby in past decades and these children's birth defects.
"That is still our position," he added. "We recognise mistakes were made and we accept some of the criticism levelled at the council but we have still not seen any evidence to confirm a causal link between the works carried out and the birth defects identified."
If a causal link can be established the claimants could receive significant personal injury damages. Early estimates put the figure at between £3 million and £5 million.
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