Forever chemicals scandal comes to a head

Hey there,

You’re going to notice a theme in the next few editions of The Spark: the environment. We’re in the run up to the Cop30 climate conference, which this year is being held in Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. My colleagues at TBIJ have put together an incredible set of investigations for the next few weeks, and I’ll have more to say on that in a month or so, but I also wanted to celebrate some success stories from other journalists working to keep our planet livable.

I want to start with a story close to home, in the UK. On a planet choked by insulating smog, beads of plastic and islands of rubbish, it is easy – and at times rather tempting – to turn off from the catastrophe happening around us.

However, when potential pollution hides in plain sight – in our homes, belongings or even tap water – you need journalists who don’t shy away from these issues.

Bentham is a small market town of about 3,000 people in Yorkshire. Since the 1970s, one of the major employers there has been the Angus International Safety Group, known locally as Angus Fire. It’s a company whose fire-fighting equipment and foams have saved countless lives. These products were manufactured near the centre of town up until 2022.

But those life-saving products came with a catch. A group of chemicals called PFAS (short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are essential in the process that disperses the liquids in the foam. They’re also colloquially known as “forever chemicals”.

Some PFAS – there are more than 10,000 – are carcinogenic, while others can disrupt our hormonal, immune and reproductive systems. For many, we simply don’t know how they affect humans. But they’re used in a surprisingly wide range of products and they are particularly prevalent in firefighting foam.

Public health data for Bentham appears to indicate there is a “cancer hotspot” in the town. Deaths from a range of cancers across all ages there sit at 118.6, compared to the standard mortality ratio of 100.0 for the rest of England. The surrounding area of North Yorkshire sits even lower at 92.0, making the spike in Bentham all the more pronounced.

But how have these chemicals infiltrated the environment, and who is to blame? That is the question facing the residents, environmental agencies, Angus Fire and two legal firms.

PFAS don’t break down in water and are also highly mobile, meaning they can travel long distances and accumulate over many years.

Angus Fire, it has been reported, used lagoons to store wastewater left over after testing their firefighting foams. These lagoons discharge into the local sewer and therefore into the wider water systems.

In 2020, the company stopped sending contaminated water to these sites, but they still drain into the sewer when it rains and, reportedly, into a nearby stream when they overflow. Two banned and cancer-causing types of PFAS have been highlighted in tests by Angus Fire: PFOA and PFOS.

A 2008 groundwater test was obtained by ENDS Report, a magazine that covers environmental policy and news. The test showed a reading of PFOS that was tens of thousands of times higher than the legal safety limits.

Professor Patrick Byrne, of Liverpool’s John Moores University, analysed ENDS Report’s findings in May 2024. He said Bentham has the “highest concentrations of total PFAS that I have ever come across in any environment in England”. He added that it is “particularly concerning” that these samples were found in groundwater, rather than just in liquid waste from the production of firefighting foam.

Similarly drastic results were recorded in soil tests near the site in 2018. (Angus Fire say experienced environmental consultants have told them that the PFAS levels identified were acceptable for the types of land use in question.)

This is not an isolated issue. Exposure by Robert Bilott – the lawyer who successfully sued DuPont in the USA over PFAS chemical pollution – brought global attention to the problem, and the 2019 film Dark Waters took the story even further.

In the UK, Pippa Neill’s 2024 article for The Guardian drew the attention of Brian McHugh, who had already been following concerns around PFAS since 2019. His decision to contact his local water company set off a chain of investigations and reporting for Yorkshire Bylines, a local independent newsroom, that has had far-reaching consequences.

Once Brian published, things began to escalate. Concerned residents formed the group Cleaner Bentham, and the mounting scientific evidence and media attention quickly added momentum.

The law firm Leigh Day has been asked to represent residents who lived near the factory runoff lagoons in what would be the first UK legal case on PFAS. In parallel, a local campaigner, Mat Young, is working with lawyers at Mishcon de Reya to secure blood tests for local residents.

And Bentham may only be the beginning. The Environment Agency has identified about 10,000 sites across the UK affected by past or current PFAS contamination. Conservative estimates for cleanup could reach £400m – but it’s not just about money. There’s a much greater human impact.

Firefighters are at particular risk from PFAS and already show higher cancer rates than the general public. A 2024 EU awareness-raising initiative, led by NGOs, found that several European politicians had PFAS levels in their blood above what is considered safe. In the US, more than 99% of people tested have been found to carry some level of PFAS in their blood – and there is little reason to believe the situation is different elsewhere.

PFAS are in our drinking water, our food packaging, our protective gear, and even the dust in our homes – and now, inside our bodies. As Professor Byrne told Yorkshire Bylines: “PFAS are probably the greatest chemical threat facing humankind in the 21st century.”

“I read Exposure by Robert Bilott and this prompted me to contact Yorkshire Water, my own water company, to find out more about PFAS chemicals and the extent of their pollution in the environment. Lots of stories began to emerge about them in household items and then there was a Guardian article about PFAS readings in Bentham – it seemed like everything was pointing me to investigate and find out more.

I visited the town and was given a ‘tour’ around the houses, streets and the site of the main employer Angus Fire. I felt this was important to really have a sense of what was happening where. Even from an early stage, I realised that high readings would mean some mitigation would be necessary and that there would be reasons why the readings were so high.

One of the biggest challenges was to get the balance right between being informative about the issues and also understanding that there was a community of residents who might not have the same level of knowledge, but who were simply aware that there was an issue in their town. Not being ‘alarmist’, but reporting information in the public domain in a manner which understood that these articles were steps in a longer-term process.

Sometimes the most important role of journalism is simply to provide information clearly, without twisting it, and then let people put pressure on their councillors, MPs or regulators. Any individual has enormous power in our society to voice concerns and demand answers and I think that’s sometimes forgotten.

I gathered the necessary information by researching what Angus Fire had told the community through public documents and by speaking to experts. It was telling to see where that information matched and where it led to more questions. Patience was key.

I hope that Yorkshire Water may feel pressure to better monitor for PFAS in drinking water and to be open and transparent about chemical regulations and where the gaps are. What comes out of your tap is a concern for everyone, because it is what we take for granted.

And of course, Bentham is not unique – we are going to see this issue emerge across the UK. That is why I think the government has got to get on the front foot with PFAS regulation, because right now we are so far behind the EU. Brexit removed protections and rebuilding them has delayed our response and put the public at risk.

I think, inevitably, legal action will follow. I hope that funding will be found to let all the residents who wish to know to have their blood tested. There may be an economic impact to the town. From what I have seen, rebuilding trust between Angus Fire and the community will be a long-term problem.

Investigative journalism has never been as important as it is now. People crave accurate and unbiased reporting – they want to find the truth. PFAS pollution is absolutely the tip of the iceberg. The chemical industry is using the same playbook as Big Tobacco. In order to have successful intervention, PFAS need to be regarded as a group of chemicals and we should implement a group ban as quickly as possible. We have to turn off the tap before we can begin the huge task of cleaning up polluted sites, landfills and waterways.

Cultural shifts can happen quickly – smoking was once widely accepted and yet has been phased out in a generation. That is what needs to happen with PFAS. Companies may resist, because these chemicals have made our lives easier – from non-stick pans to waterproof gear – but once the public understands the risks and begins to turn away from products, the companies will follow.”

Without the conscientious work of Brian McHugh and many other journalists, scientists and residents, the information we have surrounding this global threat would be minimal. As always, it is regular people whose lives are affected, people who just want to swim in a river, drink tap water and live their life free of lurking threats.

This is clearly bigger than the situation in Bentham, but the world and especially the UK is watching very carefully. Some of the stories my colleagues have been digging up this month will also expose polluters and champion those who are on the frontlines of the fight back. But this type of reporting costs a lot, and my newsroom needs your help to bring the truth to light. Will you join TBIJ’s membership community today?

See you next week,