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Camelford

Bodmin MoorCamelfordCivil parishes in CornwallTowns in CornwallUse British English from August 2015
The Town Hall, Camelford geograph.org.uk 1348974
The Town Hall, Camelford geograph.org.uk 1348974

Camelford (Cornish: Reskammel) is a town and civil parish in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, situated in the River Camel valley northwest of Bodmin Moor. The town is approximately ten miles (16 km) north of Bodmin and is governed by Camelford Town Council. Lanteglos-by-Camelford is the ecclesiastical parish in which the town is situated (not to be confused with Lanteglos-by-Fowey). The ward population at the 2011 Census was 4,001. The town population at the same census was 865.Camelford is in the North Cornwall parliamentary constituency represented by Scott Mann MP since 2015. Until 1974, the town was the administrative headquarters of Camelford Rural District. From 2009 to 2021, the town was represented on Cornwall Council by the Camelford division. From the 2021 local elections, it will be represented by the Camelford and Boscastle division. The two main industrial enterprises in the area are the slate quarry at Delabole and the cheese factory at Davidstow and there is a small industrial estate at Highfield. The A39 road (dubbed 'Atlantic Highway') passes through the town centre: a bypass has been discussed for many years. Camelford Station, some distance from the town, closed in 1966; the site was subsequently used as a cycling museum.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Camelford (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Camelford
Atlantic Highway,

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Wikipedia: CamelfordContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 50.617 ° E -4.683 °
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Address

Atlantic Highway

Atlantic Highway
PL32 9RX , Camelford
England, United Kingdom
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The Town Hall, Camelford geograph.org.uk 1348974
The Town Hall, Camelford geograph.org.uk 1348974
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Camelford water pollution incident

The Camelford water pollution incident involved the accidental contamination of the drinking water supply to the town of Camelford, Cornwall, in July 1988. Twenty tonnes of aluminium sulphate was inadvertently added to the water supply, raising the concentration to 3,000 times the admissible level. As the aluminium sulphate broke down it produced several tonnes of sulphuric acid which "stripped a cocktail of chemicals from the pipe networks as well as lead and copper piping in people's homes." Many people who came into contact with the contaminated water experienced a range of short-term health effects, and many victims suffered long-term effects whose implications remained unclear as of 2012. There has been no rigorous examination or monitoring of the health of the victims since the incident, which is Britain's worst mass poisoning event. Inquests on people who died many years later found very high levels of aluminium in the brain. Dame Barbara Clayton led a Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution enquiry into the incident.Immediately after the contamination the authorities said that the water was safe to drink, possibly with juice to cover the unpleasant taste. In an inquest in 2012 into the death of one of the victims, the coroner stated that South West Water Authority had been "gambling with as many as 20,000 lives" when they failed to inform the public about the poisoning for 16 days, a delay he called unacceptable. In the aftermath of the contamination the public were reassured that there was no risk to health. There were allegations of a cover-up and West Somerset Coroner Michael Rose stated: "I found there was a deliberate policy to not advise the public of the true nature until some 16 days after the occurrence of the incident." Following an investigation by the government's Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment, Michael Meacher, the former Environment Minister, claimed that "various associated bodies tried to bury the inquiry from the start." Meacher told one newspaper: "This has become a tug of war between the truth and an attempt to silence the truth."An April 2013 report by the Lowermoor subgroup of the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment concluded that exposure to the chemicals was unlikely to cause "delayed or persistent harm" and was also unlikely to cause future ill health. In September 2013 the government admitted that there had been a "manifest failure to give prompt appropriate advice and information to affected consumers" and offered an unreserved apology.