Alzheimers Illness

[Louis the fly]

About 20 years ago I received a phone call from my sister in Perth W.A. asking me to come to Australia as my mother did not have long to live.
When I arrived and went to the nursing home she did not know who I was, this continued on all my visits, then one day she looked at me and said. " Hello son how long are you home for ? " The first question she always used to ask when I came home from sea.

[John Pruden]

Louis I know first hand what a marvellous thing the brain is and what it will do the stroke clinic and brain doctors some could predict what your health would be a few years down the line with me I was just pig headed about things my starter was sitting by Barbara in the front room and a member of the family looked at her and said how is he as if I was not even there that was the biggest incentive for anyone to prove people wrong? I hope there will be medication to help any dementia and Alzheimer's sufferers very soon..jp

[cappy]

got a brother with this disease .....he is 4 years younger than me his wife died on holiday2 years ago leaving him to his son and daughter.......it is very upsetting to see what was a big fine man turn into a child .......he now tells lies and is frightened of water ....it is soul destroying for the family .....i took them to my company solicitor last year to get the power of attorney for his children......he would not have it but only listened to me and in the end would agree.....he is now in the throes of going into a home but sadly ....no help from the state ......his house is for sale.......the costs will be 2 to 3 thousand pounds a month.......it is the only disease you have to pay for yourself ......its a hard time for all concerned.....but we send millions to africa india and all these moslem countrys ....time we shut the door brought the army home......and looked after our own for a change ....instead of trying to be a big hitter.......perhaps when we have whittled away what we have ......the people will realise that 99 percent of the politicians are glory seeking bastards.......the greatest of course bliar......were are our winstons and maggies to punch for us ......but it will never happen........sad ...regards cappy

[Lucy Knight]

The disaster you are referring to was at the water treatment works at Lowermoor water treatment works, Cornwall which supplied the town of Camelford Cornwall July 1988. A new delivery driver accidently put 20 tonnes of alumium suphate in the wrong manhole with disasterous results. The system was that they had access to the padlock key so weren't liasing with anyone before dumping it in the manhole and there were two nearby. One was the correct one and the other close by went into the direct water supply.

At the time I was working on an ITV News crew as a staff sound recordist and although it wasn't my usual patch we ended up all over the area. I remember being up in Camelford a day or so later covering the story. Also some months later covering a story at County Hall Truro where Cornwall County Council meet. A very detailed long in depth document was being read out. It appeared to go over the heads of many of the County councillors.

Ibelieve they put aluminium powder in the water at the water works.
There was a case a few years ago around Devon or Cornwall where a lorry driver dumped a whole load into the water tanks and many many people developed Alzheimers
Dangerous stuff. They put all kinds of chemicals in our water without our knowledge
Cheers
Brian.

[robpage]

In April 2013 the following was published basically saying that A water poisoning incident in Cornwall is "unlikely" to have caused long-term health effects, Camelford's water supply was poisoned in July 1988 when aluminium sulphate was tipped into the wrong tank at the Lowermoor treatment works. Last year (2012 ) a coroner said it may have contributed to the death of a local woman Carole Cross.The town's former Liberal Democrat MP said the report was a "bitter disappointment".The report said exposure to the chemicals was unlikely to cause "delayed or persistent harm".It has been published by the Lowermoor subgroup of the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) and claims to be the most comprehensive of its type.The committee, which advises the chief medical officer at the Department of Health, also concluded that exposure to the chemicals was "unlikely" to cause future ill health.
Twenty tonnes of aluminium sulphate - used to treat cloudy water - was mistakenly tipped into the wrong tank at the unmanned plant by a relief delivery driver and the chemical went straight into the town's mains supply.At the time of the incident, the then South West Water Authority insisted the water was safe to drink and suggested the "foul" taste of the water could be disguised by mixing it with orange juice.Residents were told orange juice could disguise the "foul" taste of the tap water'But people quickly began reporting a range of health issues, including stomach cramps, rashes, diarrhoea, mouth ulcers and aching joints and some residents said their hair turned green from copper residues.The only person to lose his job after the poisoning was John Lewis, a water authority manager.Carole Cross, who died in 2004 at the age of 59, was living in the area with her environmental scientist husband, Dr Doug Cross, when the water was poisoned.A post-mortem examination found abnormally high levels of aluminium in her brain.Last year West Somerset Coroner Michael Rose said there was a very real possibility the water poisoning contributed to her death, but "only a slight possibility" it caused her death.Mr Rose is shortly to resume an inquest into the death of Richard Gibbons, who also claimed to have been affected by the water poisoning.Mr Gibbons, who lived at nearby Tintagel, died in May 2010, aged 60.

The coroner told BBC News he could not comment on the COT report, while Mr Gibbons' son-in-law Phil Reed, said he would need time to "properly digest" the report before the family could respond.Dr Cross, who resigned from the Lowermoor subgroup at the end of last year, described the report as "useless"."I walked out in disgust because I could now allow my reputation as a scientist to be linked to this report," he said."It's useless. They haven't looked at medical records or carried out clinical evaluations on the people in Camelford."The only good thing to come out of it is they've collected a lot of information from people as to how they felt at the time - but in scientific terms it's almost worthless."Dr Cross said he is currently helping about seven families who have lost someone who was living in the affected area."There's plenty of research that already links aluminium to dementia - we don't particularly need more research... what we need is action," he added.Lord Tyler, Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall from 1992 to 2005, said: "After nearly 25 years, this is a bitter disappointment."Many local people will justifiably find it difficult to see how this group can conclude that exposure to the aluminium has caused no delayed or persistent harm, when the coroner's conclusions in the recent case of Mrs Cross were so different."COT set up the Lowermoor subgroup in 2001 at the request of the government to advise on whether exposure to the aluminium sulphate had resulted in "delayed or persistent health effects" and whether additional research was necessary.Its report found "no conclusive link" between the water poisoning incident and the chronic symptoms and diseases reported.However, it said further research was needed in a number of areas, including the effect of contaminants on neurological health, the effects on the development of children born to women who were pregnant at the time of the incident and the effects on children who were less than a year old in 1988.

[j.sabourn]

It was always my fathers stated ambition to better his father who died at 78 and he succeeded and died at 80. I sometimes wonder how lucky some of us are for living longer than a lot of us knew, I find it very sad when a young person who I now consider anyone below 65 kicks the bucket, especially considering the rough and tumble lives some of us led. If there is anyone makes these decisions for us, he must not always be a good judge of character at times. The old saying "only the good die young" is another "Truism" in a lot of cases. JS