Capper Pass and Son
By-products of the tin refining process including arsenic caused local pollution, and in the 1980s an additional radioactive hazard due to polonium was discovered.
Emissions from the Melton plant were implicated in a child cancer cluster in East Yorkshire; as of 2012 a link has not been scientifically established.
He became a paternalistic Victorian industrialist, building houses for his workers in Windmill Hill, and donating to the newly founded Bristol University.
[15] Tin was the plant's main product; it also produced silver, cadmium, lead, copper, antimony, bismuth, indium, and gold.
[20] The plant also discharged into the Humber Estuary,[20] resulting in significant arsenic pollution;[note 2] in 1997, levels remained slightly elevated in estuary sediments, and it has also been speculated that arsenic discharge has been carried into the North Sea, resulting in high levels in sediments off the Norfolk coast.
[22] In 1984 a bismuth alloy supplied by the plant to a company in Germany was found to be radioactive: alpha radiation was found to be emitted by by-products of the smelting process due to the presence of polonium 210 (a radioisotope with a half-life of about 140 days), thought to be produced via radioactive decay of naturally occurring isotopes in tin-bearing ore bodies such as granite.
Most (about 95%) of the polonium bearing materials and radioactivity were confined to the factory, as a result of the high temperature smelting process causing it to volatilize and condense within the plant.
[24] The works gained notoriety because they were linked in the 1980s with a child cancer cluster in west Hull and surrounding villages; (Willerby and Kirk Ella)[24][25] in 1988 the plant was part of a feature on radiation in Channel 4's Dispatches documentary "Radioactive Britain".
[28] A 1996 report recommended improvements in assessment, mitigation and monitoring of radioactive agents in the metallurgical refining industry be made.
[note 3] After closure of the plant and sale of the site, the former owner Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) denied any responsibility or liability for its former asset for over two decades.
[31] A study publisher in 2005 led by Sir Richard Doll showed an elevated risk of lung cancer amongst workers at the plant,[32] which was found to be statistically associated with exposure to arsenic and other heavy metals.
During the Second World War two companies were acquired: Victor G. Stevens Ltd, of Felling-on-Tyne; and Messrs George Pizey (London).
