UKHSA announces major new PFAS biomonitoring study

The announcement follows calls from Leigh Day, and experts they are working with, for a population wide biomonitoring programme. It would build a UK databank of information so that we can better understand both the levels of PFAS currently in people's blood in the UK and be used to better assess potential long term health risks.

The UKHSA's announcement today is significant in the context of Leigh Day's ongoing investigation into PFAS contamination in Thornton Cleveleys.

It also comes in the wake of Leigh Day publishing highly significant data gathered through a PFAS blood-testing programme, involving residents of the Lancashire town, Thornton Cleveleys, organised by Leigh Day in conjunction with experts at Manchester Metropolitan University. 

The published results triggered a public, political and scientific debate about what PFAS blood testing can show, whether this should be undertaken in the UK and, if it is undertaken, how such testing should be funded.

Sarah Moore, the Leigh Day partner leading the investigation in Thornton Cleveleys, said: 

"It is really good news that the UKHSA has now agreed to include PFAS testing as part of the data being collected through the existing Health Survey for England program. Our work in Thornton Cleveleys so far has shown that communities living near to chemical sites have raised levels of PFAS chemicals in their bodies. To date, our experts have had to reference US and EU data to help interpret the levels of PFAS our tests have detected within the community. This newly announced UKHSA initiative will provide a bank of UK data against which chemical facility adjacent communities, such as Thornton Cleveleys, can better understand the significance of their exposure. In the immediate term this would be relative to the wider UK population, but as the UKHSA study develops, also the wider health implications of PFAS exposure.”

Leigh Day's work in Thornton Cleveleys continues: the team are currently working with experts and philanthropic funders with a view to extending the PFAS blood testing program already undertaken in the community. 

Sarah Moore explained:

"The data that we have collected in Thornton Cleveleys so far only concerns 49 local residents. We would like to widen out this study, so that more residents in the town can have their levels assessed. In light of the UKHSA's announcement today this will be even more important, as it will sit alongside the UKHSA "background" or population-wide data, to help experts and regulators to better understand the human health legacy for communities living near to chemical plants.”