Dr David Penman Features in Netflix Top 10
Toxic Town is a 4 part mini series that has just been released on Netflix today depicting the real life battle of families in Corby whose children were born with limb defects. Described by Netflix as one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals.
Netflix has produced a four part mini series called Toxic Town that was released today and in this they go through the whole battles that the families went through over several years to get justice for the deformities their children suffered, not only the physical aspects of the deformities but the pyschological and emotional aspects of those deformities that without the persistence of the experts in the case may never have got justice. It is on Netflix now for everyone to watch.
Dr David Penman was the fetal medicine expert in this case for the prosecution of Corby Borough Council. in 2010.
As Toxic Town tells the story of the people affected by the Corby poisoning, actors Jodie Whittaker and Aimee Lou Wood portrayed the real life women behind the drama.
Dr David’s character was played by Phillip Childs.
Filming for the series took place in late 2023, the majority of which was filmed in Bolton.
The BBC ran a documentary about this case of environmental poisoning which was shown on BBC4 last night (Wednesdays 26th February 2025).
View Dr Penman’s involvement in the BBC4 documentary Here
The Back Story
In 1980 Corby steelworks was closed due to a heavy decline in the industry, leaving thousands of people unemplyed prompting the local council the start a regeneration project. The British Steel Corporation demolished the works and the council started reclaiming the land. This involved moving millions of tonnes of waste to Deene Quarry on the outskirts of Corby. Lorries of this toxic waste were driven, uncovered, through the streets of Corby and several years later concerns started to arise when mothers living near the reclamation site gave birth to children with upper limb deformities.
In 1999 a Northamptonshire Health Authority study found no unusual cluster of birth defects however a solicitor, Des Collins read about the case and conducted his own investigation and found that birth defects around Corby were almost 3 times higher than the surrounding area.
Indepth Research By Dr David Penman – Fetal Medicine Specialist in Kent
Des assembled a team of experts, toxicologists, pollution experts including Dr David Penman, an expert in fetal medicine who, through countless hours of research identified that cadmium, found in cigarettes and known in tests to cause limb defects, was the cause of the limb defects in these children. The former steel site had deposits of the heavy metal cadmium and it was Dr Penman who discovered that the spread of contaminated dust throughout the town had been inhaled by the mothers which in turn got into their bloodstream and that of their unborn babies.
Following a civil court hearing Justice Akenhead ruled in favour of the claimants making the first time a UK court had recognised airbourne pollutants harming unborn babies. The council disputed the verdict but eventually settled with the families in 2010.
The case remains a landmark ruling in environmental justice.
