Toxic Town Traces True Story Of Mothers Fighting An Environmental Scandal

Imagine this: just a day before your child's birth, you’re happily chatting with a fellow mother, laughing about how your baby might just walk out of you any moment. But after delivery, your joy is met with shock—you notice your baby has deformed digits. As an expectant mother, you took every precaution, carried your child for nine months with utmost care, and avoided alcohol and smoking—yet, something went wrong. You can’t help but wonder, what went south?

As hypothetical as this may sound, this is based on a true incident that took place in the town of Corby in the UK. Babies born in the 1980's-1990's had severe deformities. This birth defect affected the lives of many children who were born during this period. 

Netflix's new release Toxic Town will focus on the lives of mothers, who raised their voices against the improper toxic waste disposal that led to them getting affected by toxic waste which could either have travelled by air as a consequence of dust or could have been ingested after landing on vegetables or other items.

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Corby Toxic Waste Case

The town of Corby, Northamptonshire, became a steel town through the establishment of a steel tube manufacturing site Stewarts & Llyods in the 1930s. By 1960, Corby had grown to become one of the most heavily industrialised areas in the English Midlands. In 1981, British Steel Corporation closed this site due to an unprofitable business. Years of steelmaking accumulated a huge quantity of industrial waste, including toxic waste.

As a part of the Urban Regeneration Programme, Corby Borough Council undertook the demolition, excavation, and redevelopment of the site between 1984 and 1999. During this period, the waste transportation took place through open lorries, which ended up spilling sludge over the roads and releasing huge amounts of dust into the air.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, the rates of upper-limb differences in babies born in Corby started increasing. In November 2005, mothers of thirty children submitted expert evidence to the High Court in London, claiming that during their pregnancies they were exposed to contamination from the waste removal operations. They sought to bring legal action to try to prove a link between the mismanagement of the toxic waste and the birth defects suffered by their children. 

On 16 April 2010, the council released a joint statement with the families' solicitors announcing it was dropping its appeal and had agreed to a financial settlement with 19 families. The court, acknowledging that monetary compensation may not compensate for disabilities the young people of Corby town faced, hoped that the apology would mean that they could now put their legal battle behind them and proceed with their lives with a greater degree of financial certainty. The court compensated the victims with £25 per household for 20 years. 

Toxic Town: the complete cast

The cast of the series is composed of Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who, Broadchurch), Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty, Trainspotting), Aimee Lou Wood (Sex Education, Living). To them are added: Rory Kinnear (The Diplomat, James Bond) and Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey, Spotless).

Toxic Town release date

Toxic Town arrives on Netflix on February 27, 2025.