Concerns over regulation of ‘forever chemicals’ submitted to inquiry

In the submission, environmental lawyers at Leigh Day who represent individuals and communities impacted by PFAS pollution, have highlighted a lack of robust standards and regulations for the chemicals.

The submission also points out a lack of proper PFAS monitoring and testing by regulators, as well as limited routes to legal redress for individuals against alleged polluters. 

The information was submitted in response to a call for evidence by the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), which is conducting an inquiry into PFAS, looking at whether enough is being done to mitigate the known risks of the substances.  

PFAS are a group of substances dubbed forever chemicals due to taking thousands of years to break down in the environment, with a number of the chemicals in the group shown to be toxic to people and wildlife.  

Lawyers at Leigh Day have been instructed by individuals and communities who have been impacted by PFAS pollution to investigate a number of potential cases, information on which it has now submitted to the EAC as part of its inquiry. 

This includes the Leigh Day’s investigations into pollution in the town of Bentham, Yorkshire, where a report last year found the highest levels of PFAS pollution in the UK. 

 This pollution is understood to have been caused by the historic manufacturing of fire extinguisher foam at the Angus Fire factory site, where a number of wastewater lagoons previously contained run-off contaminated with PFAS from the factory’s operations.  

Testing by Angus Fire has also confirmed the presence of PFAS chemicals, and the company has stated that it no longer manufactures or tests PFAS containing foam products at Bentham or any of its other factories.  

The submission by Leigh Day also references investigations on behalf of residents in Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire, where testing has found high concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) – part of the PFAS chemical family and classified as carcinogenic to humans by the World Health Organisation.  

These high concentrations have been found near the site of an AGC factory, with the company having admitted to producing PFOA and other forever chemicals as a by-product of legal manufacturing processes. 

Residents living near the plant have been told to wash homegrown produce before consuming it.

In their submission to the EAC’s inquiry, Leigh Day lawyers raise concerns that the UK is falling behind other countries in the identification, regulation and monitoring of PFAS, and that the Environment Agency lacks the resources to properly monitor contaminated sites. 

Leigh Day senior associate solicitor Charlotte Armstrong said: 

“We have been investigating PFAS pollution on behalf of individuals and communities in areas including Bentham and Thornton Cleveleys who say they have been impacted by these issues. Our investigations have led us to conclude that the UK lacks the regulations and standards to properly monitor and mitigate the risks of PFAS pollution. As such, we have made this submission to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry, and hope that the inquiry can point the way for the UK to improve its regulation of PFAS.”