THOUSANDS of householders in Bridgnorth received water that had been overdosed with fluoride after an unqualified worker added too much of the substance to supplies, it was revealed this week.
A total of 28,743 people in Bridgnorth and Wolverhampton were affected by the incident, following the gaffe at Dimmingsdale works, which is operated by Severn Trent Water.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate was highly critical of the mistake.The fluoride was added by an unqualified worker and Severn Trent then tested the wrong taps.
Severn Trent admitted an error and strengthened procedures, following the incident. It repaired faulty equipment, retrained staff, reviewed procedures and sampled the affected area.
A report from the Drinking Water Inspectorate said the overdosing alarm had involved a catalogue of errors. Officers had highlighted a series of mistakes and made 14 recommendations to prevent a recurrence.
Severn Trent had failed to notify the Inspectorate, did not liaise with local and health authorities, had been guilty of inadequate follow-up sampling, inadequate investigations into the root cause and inadequate training of staff.
The report said: “In June and July, water leaving the works contained more flouride than permitted, which went undetected because work being carried out to install new equipment was inadequately supervised.”
The company had not complied with many aspects of the Code of Practice on Technical Aspects of Fluoridation 2005.”
The damning report said the technician involved had not received adequate training and competence had not been assessed. It added:”The equipment was not operating correctly and had not been fully tested prior to use.”
Alarms were not responded to and there was a general lack of awareness of the local water supply configuration, which meant the area receiving fluoridated water was not accurately defined or sampled appropriately.
Water at Dimmingsdale works is fluoridated as part of a legal agreement with West Midlands Strategic Health Authority.
The effects of a fluoride overdose can be symptoms similar to gastro enteritis. However, the Dimmingsdale incident did not cause such problems because the overdose was not at a sufficiently high level.