Independent issues correction over front page Trafigura ‘Toxic shame’ story

The Independent has issued a correction over a front page story from 17 September 2009 about oil company Trafigura headed “Toxic shame”.

The Independent’s clarification today says: “The article stated that claimants had been maimed and wrongly suggested that, due to the settlement, claims of more serious injuries including miscarriages would not be tested in the High Court case.

“It was about the legal settlement of claims by people who had been injured when waste from a Trafigura chartered ship was dumped by a contractor in Ivory Coast.

“In fact such claims had already been withdrawn earlier last year. A joint statement issued by both parties in that case said that independent experts have been ‘unable to identify a link between exposure to the chemicals… and deaths, miscarriages, still births, birth defects … or other serious and chronic injuries’.

The Independent story came a month before the row between The Guardian and Trafigura over a super-injunction which banned it from reporting the findings of the Minton report into the toxic waste incident.