Measure for measure: The urgent case for PFAS biomonitoring in the UK

The Leigh Day team working on a potential legal claim relating to PFAS contamination in Thornton Cleveleys welcomes this announcement as a step toward a substantive PFAS biomonitoring program for the UK.

The announcement matters most for people living near current or former chemical production facilities, where exposure risk is highest. Leigh Day's work in Thornton Cleveleys has played a significant role in building the case for wider PFAS biomonitoring across the UK, and here we set out what the UKHSA announcement means, what gaps remain, and what residents and other affected communities can do next.

What is PFAS biomonitoring?

Human biomonitoring is a way of measuring chemicals in the body by testing samples such as blood or urine.

What are the next steps here?

Leigh Day continues to call for government support and testing for Thornton Cleveleys residents, alongside the new national study.

Following its experience testing residents, Leigh Day has led calls for wider PFAS biomonitoring, not only in Thornton Cleveleys but across the most impacted communities in the UK. The UKHSA announcement of 3 November 2026, confirming a major study of PFAS levels across the UK population, is a positive response to these calls. However, it remains only a partial response. Unlike communities affected by PFAS contamination in Europe, the government is not offering residents of Thornton Cleveleys any additional support or testing.

Leigh Day will continue to make this argument on behalf of local residents. As part of that effort, residents of Thornton Cleveleys have set up a crowdfunding page to help contribute toward further testing.

The government position: Data? What data?

This laissez-faire approach of the UK government, prior to the UKHSA announcement on 3 November 2026, is in direct contrast to the position adopted in other countries, such as Sweden, Italy, and Belgium – where biomonitoring, of PFAS specifically, has been implemented as part of a wider public health response following evidence of serious contamination in communities.

In Veneto, Italy, experimental research detected PFAS in groundwater, surface water, and drinking water. The Veneto Health Authority says it "immediately implemented a series of actions aimed at protecting public health," including installation of activated carbon filters, identification of the pollution source, monitoring and control of water supplies, a biomonitoring study, definition of the exposure area, taking charge of the population exposed to PFAS contamination, and food monitoring. The Veneto Authority continues to publish Health Surveillance Plans for those potentially affected by this exposure.

If this response is possible in Europe, campaigners ask why it cannot happen in the UK.

The Environment Audit Committee's call to action

The UK government's position also sits at odds with the Environment Audit Committee, which recommended earlier this year that the government should "invest in long-term research on the health effects of PFAS exposure in the UK population," including "the establishment of biomonitoring programmes for groups with higher exposure."

Few UK communities fit that description as closely as Thornton Cleveleys. Other areas, including Upper Heyford and Bentham, are also likely affected by PFAS contamination. No community should be ignored or sidelined in this debate, and Leigh Day wants all affected residents to join the call for national biomonitoring.

The PFAS blood tests in Thornton Cleveleys

Through the summer of 2026, a Leigh Day team led by Sarah Moore worked with experts at Manchester Metropolitan University to arrange blood testing for 49 volunteers living in Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire. Leigh Day, Watershed (an independent journalistic organisation), and Changing Ideas funded the testing, carried out as part of Leigh Day's ongoing investigation into a potential legal claim on behalf of residents against Asahi Glass Chemicals Europe Ltd., the owner of a local factory at the centre of the town.

The media widely reported the test results. PFAS expert Professor Tony Fletcher is now reviewing the results from an epidemiological perspective and preparing a report to help the community understand what the findings mean. Leigh Day will share this report with the community at an upcoming meeting, with details to be published shortly. The results have sparked a wider public debate about access to PFAS testing and the health impacts associated with PFAS chemicals.

Why did lawyers and campaigners fund the blood tests?

Leigh Day is a firm of solicitors, while we work extensively with expert teams, we do not routinely raise funds for blood testing or organise blood testing programmes.

We felt this was necessary in Thornton Cleveleys not only in response to local concern regarding the potential health impacts of exposure to the known carcinogenic PFAS chemical PFOA; but also in circumstances where the local council and government agencies had refused to step in, in order to assist the community in accessing testing.

Wyre Council position: testing will cause anxiety and results will be difficult to interpret

Wyre Council declined to fund biomonitoring, arguing that PFAS results cannot identify an exposure source and may cause unnecessary worry.

Leigh Day approached Wyre Council and Lancashire County Council in spring 2026 to ask whether either might fund biomonitoring in Thornton Cleveleys. Wyre Council responded:

"For substances like PFAS that are widespread in the environment, test results reflect exposure from many different sources… most people in the UK are likely to have measurable levels of PFAS in the blood, but it is not possible to tell where the exposure came from. PFAS blood testing also cannot be used to predict future health problems. For these reasons, PFAS biomonitoring is not currently recommended through the NHS or private blood tests. At this time, such tests are unlikely to provide clear information for individuals and can sometimes create unnecessary worry."

Wyre Council's response aligned with the wider government position at the time.

Is the government's position defensible?

Leigh Day argues that neither the "anxiety" objection nor the "difficult to interpret" objection holds up against the evidence from Thornton Cleveleys.

• On the “anxiety” argument: Residents of Thornton Cleveleys already know they face a significant PFOA issue, following the ongoing Environment Agency (EA) investigation initiated in the town in 2024. That investigation has already told residents that local soil, and produce grown from it, including eggs and vegetables, contains high levels of PFOA chemicals. For this reason, the group of 49 residents that formed part of the Leigh Day study volunteered to have their PFAS blood levels assessed, as a way of dealing with that anxiety.

• On the "difficult to interpret" argument: The blood testing results were clear and concerning. Most residents had PFAS levels higher than 99% of the US general population. Clinicians in the US rely on these guidelines produced by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), to advise on potential interventions for high PFAS levels and proactive screening for related conditions.

How have the local agencies responded to these results?

The UKHSA has so far dismissed calls for further blood testing, citing insufficient evidence of adverse health effects.

Local organisations and individuals have, to date, declined to commit to funding additional testing, insisting that doing so would cause further worry. UKHSA published a "rapid review" on 22 September 2026, dismissing calls for further blood testing and stating: "[T]here is currently inadequate evidence to determine if there are likely to be any adverse effects of chronic PFAS exposure on the health of communities living near local industrial and manufacturing site[s]."

What are the next steps for the legal claim?

We are continuing to develop our prospective case as well as consider further testing for residents. The claimants have launched their crowdfunder and their CrowdJustice page here.

We will be setting up a further community meeting with all residents and our experts towards the end of 2026.  

Our experts include Dr David Megson, who interpreted the results of the PFAS blood testing in Thornton Cleveleys, and Professor Tony Fletcher, who presented at the last community meeting in Thornton Cleveleys, and was a scientific consultant on the Jersey Report, during the autumn of 2026. 

We will circulate details of this meeting closer to the date.