People in North Yorkshire town found to have ‘alarming’ levels of toxic Pfas chemicals in blood

7 hours ago 9

Alarming levels of toxic forever chemicals have been found in the blood of people living in a town previously revealed to be contaminated with the UK’s highest recorded level of Pfas.

Pfas, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and commonly known as forever chemicals because of their persistence in the environment, have been linked to a wide range of serious illnesses, including some cancers. They are used in a variety of consumer products but one of their most prolific uses is in firefighting foam.

In May 2024, Ends Report and the Guardian published an investigation revealing that groundwater in the small rural town of Bentham in North Yorkshire was contaminated with the highest level of Pfas ever known to be recorded in the UK. This was found on land belonging to Angus Fire, a factory that between 1976 and 2024 legally produced Pfas-containing firefighting foam.

Blood testing conducted as part of a new ITV documentary that will be broadcast on Sunday night, produced in collaboration with Ends Report, has revealed that residents and former workers at the factory have “alarming” levels of these chemicals in their blood.

In the UK, there are no guidelines indicating what constitutes a safe level of Pfas in blood. However in the US, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (Nasem) has said that if the sum of seven Pfas chemicals in blood is above 2 ng/ml, there is a potential for adverse health effects.

The highest Pfas level in blood recorded in Bentham was 405 ng/ml – more than 200 times greater than the US risk level of 2 ng/ml. This was recorded in the blood of a former worker at Angus Fire who has asked to remain anonymous.

If the Pfas level in the blood is above 20 ng/ml, then Nasem says there is an increased risk of adverse effects and that clinicians should consider more frequent, targeted health screenings.

Almost a quarter (23%) of the 39 people who underwent blood testing in Bentham had levels that place them in the highest risk category. Among them was 34-year-old Stephen Illston, who has a Pfas level of 55 ng/ml.

Illston has had trouble conceiving children. He said his infertility problems had led to poor mental health and years when he questioned his “usefulness on the earth”.

A growing body of research is revealing that Pfas are associated with reproductive health problems, including lower sperm count. Stephen said that finding out he had elevated Pfas in his blood was “an answer that I’ve been searching for”.

“It’s good to hear it’s not me, maybe it’s the Pfas that’s caused it,” he said.

Dr David Megson, a forensic environmental scientist and Pfas expert at Manchester Metropolitan University who carried out an analysis of the blood results to compare them to Pfas levels in the US population, said he was “absolutely shocked” when he saw the Bentham data. He said the levels were “exceptionally high compared to a general [US] background population”.

“If it was just normal, we should have half the people above [and] half the people below average. [But] nearly everybody we tested was above average and two-thirds of them were in the top 5%. A third of them were higher than anything we’d ever expect to see in the background population. So that was really shocking, and quite staggering.”

Dr Shubhi Sharma from the environmental charity Chem Trust said: “The Pfas levels in people’s blood in Bentham are alarming, especially given that these chemicals have been linked to a variety of adverse health outcomes including certain cancers.”

An Angus Fire spokesperson said that there was “no accepted way of interpreting blood tests for Pfas internationally and there is limited agreement on the relationship between Pfas exposure, blood levels and health effects”.

They said it was “unfounded to classify [the] blood data as ‘unusually high’ in the UK context”. They added that the blood test group in Bentham was “extremely small” and said: “While we appreciate that these findings may cause concern, having raised Pfas levels in blood is neither an indicator of health, nor of the way in which Pfas has been absorbed.”

Dr Tony Fletcher, an epidemiologist and a world-leading Pfas expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the fact there were a number of people in Bentham who “have high levels well above 20 ng/ml” who didn’t work at the factory suggested that “they were getting exposed in the community”.

An internal Environment Agency report produced in 2024 suggested that airborne emissions from the factory could be a likely pathway for this exposure.

The report states that “aerial dispersal” from foam testing at the factory could lead to Pfas exposure for site workers and exposure to residents through the “consumption of allotment produce and produce grown within private gardens”. The probability of this happening, it adds, is considered “likely”.

Fletcher said this could be possible because during the testing of Pfas firefighting foams, the chemicals could “get up into the air”, which could then “rain down or settle some distance from the plant and then it soaks down into the ground and you either get exposed to the water or to food grown in the ground”.

Lindsay Young, who has a Pfas level of 30ng/ml, said test fires on the Angus Fire site were a frequent occurrence. “The siren goes off and then you know the smoke is coming in five or 10 minutes and you have to go inside. It’s huge billowing gusts of black smoke. You don’t know what’s in it, no one tells you what’s in it,” she said.

A spokesperson for Angus Fire said that the risk in the Environment Agency report was “overstated” and said that as a manufacturer of firefighting foams, they “responsibly carry out routine fire tests to ensure our products are fit for purpose”. The firm said it had stopped testing Pfas foams in Bentham in 2022 and that former operations at Angus Fire were not the sole source of Pfas in the environment in the Bentham area.

The Environment Agency said that the fire testing was not regulated as part of the site’s permit, and that the regulation of these fires would be the responsibility of the local council. However, North Yorkshire council said that due to the company’s connection with firefighting, the test fires were exempt from the Clean Air Act 1993, which otherwise prohibits emissions of dark smoke from trade or business premises.

Fletcher is part of a scientific panel advising the Jersey government after private drinking water supplies in Jersey were polluted by the use of firefighting foams containing Pfas at the airport.

The panel has advised the Jersey government that for women of childbearing age who have a Pfas level of over 10 ng/ml, or anyone with a level of over 20 ng/ml and eligible for cholesterol lowering medication, clinicians should consider prescribing colesevelam, a cholesterol drug that has been found to lower Pfas levels in the first instance, with bloodletting to be considered as a second-line offer.

Fletcher has said that people in Bentham who have elevated Pfas in their blood and who want to reduce it could discuss these options with a physician.

A spokesperson for Angus Fire said: “We recognise the concerns about potentially damaging environmental impacts from historical operations at our facility and regret the inconvenience and worry that this has caused in Bentham.

“Angus Fire has been working diligently for a number of years alongside independent and industry-leading environmental consultants and the Environment Agency to establish the extent of any Pfas chemical contamination […] Angus Fire has always followed guidelines as set out by the UK regulatory and health authorities. Our own understanding of these chemicals evolved at the same rate as those of the regulators.”