Paint firm fined after toxic chemical released into Devon river

Sample taken close to the plant contained 80,000 times the safe level of banned substance TBT

A large marine paint-making company has been fined £650,000 after a highly toxic banned chemical was washed out from a holding tank into a “pristine” river in south-west England.

International Paint Ltd “utterly failed” to control a substance called TBT that it had stored at its mothballed plant on the banks of the Yealm in Devon, a judge concluded.