Original subtitles

Hello. Hiya. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well. Come and have a seat.

Thank you.

Very nervous.

Don't like needles.

If I don't have higher levels, it's obviously going to be a relief, but I've

always said that when you know what's wrong, you know what to do to manage it.

Come and have a sit on this, Jess.

What are you hoping to find out? That it's negative.

I now have a tumour in my kidney, but I just think it's

important to find out what has been going on.

We've had our children tested.

I'd like to know if they've been affected as well.

When we found out about...

The contamination, I was pregnant with my second child.

It made me really worried for my children's health. I want to know, so

I either put my mind at rest that they're OK.

A new foam is demonstrated which can put out fires so fierce that they could

actually set light to ordinary foam.

The water and foam used to fight the fire is the other environmental hazard.

vast volume used is currently being contained on site.

But it would cause serious pollution if it leaked into nearby watercourses or

soaked into the ground.

If we do know that it's in the blood, maybe we could do something about that.

You want your children to be healthy.

growing up here, especially when you're younger, getting that space and that

air. Yeah, I felt very safe.

I love that you can walk out of Durham within five minutes. You can be walking

along the river and explore for hours on end.

Bentham is a small market town in North Yorkshire with a population of 3 ,000

people.

It's a wonderful community.

It's vibrant.

There's a lot going on.

It's a very caring community.

I can't walk down the street without talking to lots of people.

My whole ethos is about eating produce that I've grown as much as possible.

It's an absolutely wonderful place to live.

In 1969, there were very few houses on the market at those times, but this one

came on the market.

Christine and myself, we were lucky enough to buy it.

£3 ,500.

So that's how we came to live in Bentham.

We had four kids.

And when you bought this house, did you know a lot about Angus Fire?

No.

It didn't bother me coming here. It was a lovely house. I mean, we bought the

house. We didn't buy what's till the end of the garden.

I knew there was workers.

A lot of workers.

Angus Fire is one of the UK's largest producers of firefighting equipment.

selling its products across the UK and around the world.

Its parent company, Angus International Safety Group, owns fire safety companies

across the globe.

Founded over 200 years ago, Angus Fire has been a major employer in Bentham for

generations.

Because they all worked there.

My grandad did.

My dad did.

My brother worked in there.

I worked in for a bit.

John, Colin and Steve are former workers at the factory.

It was a good job for life.

You only finished when you left.

Yeah. I know they're employing nothing to what they used to, but even now,

Benson's nothing without him. No.

But if it wasn't for Angus's, there wouldn't be anything, would there? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I worked there 1974 to 84.

Ten years.

I think I was probably 19 when I went to work for him.

Oh, this is down at Fawn Plant.

That's down at Fawn Plant.

These tanks would be full of foremen. When there was, like, a big fire in

or airports or anything, they would wear with it all right away, like, you know.

Everybody thought, what a product.

Because I think it absolutely smothered fires, like, you know. It's just ironic

that such a purposeful thing what saved lives could have

done damage, like.

From 1976 to 2024, Angus Fire made firefighting foam

containing PFAS.

PFAS. are a group of man -made compounds, also known as forever

They break down slowly and can remain in the environment for thousands of years.

PFAS are a group of over 7 million different chemicals.

They're stain resistant, they're water resistant. We use them really widely in

wide range of different products.

From waterproof clothing to non -stick cookware and food containers, PFAS is

widely used in everyday consumer products.

But one of its widest uses is in firefighting foam.

So with firefighting foams, we want to be able to put the fire out quickly.

So we need a surfactant that's able to create really nice, stable, strong

bubbles to quench that fire quickly.

PFAS were perfect for that.

But over time we've discovered that they're really persistent in the

environment.

Some of them pose a threat to wildlife and to humans as well.

Because of the widespread use of these chemicals and their persistence in the

environment, it's thought we all have some level of PFAS in our blood.

Residents say testing on Angus Fire's site was a regular occurrence.

I remember a siren going off and then not long after

the big black plumes of smoke.

Angus had the steel vat.

And they set fire to them.

That's when the smoke would go.

And then they'd put them out with their extinguisher foam.

We knew that not long after that there was going to be all this foam lying

about.

I remember how it would come through the wire mesh at the back, which was the

only thing that closed off the factory at that end.

And it would just spill out onto the lane.

Neighbours Lydia and Emma say they remember walking their children to

through the foam.

It didn't stop mine from playing with it, you see.

They would kick it around and bat it about, you know, pick it up.

You were more sensible, weren't you?

Something didn't feel quite right.

I remember it was hard to keep my daughter away from the phone.

I remember being quite upset and trying to scrub her hands when we got home.

When you would see the phone, what did you think at the

time?

Yeah, I just sort of caught it and thought, that can't be good.

That doesn't feel right, it doesn't look right.

But there's still that element of trust.

It must be okay because they wouldn't, you know, there are regulations.

Angus Fire say it's unlikely that PFAS phones landed on the lane next to the

factory and that they stopped testing PFAS phones in 2022.

In May 2024, a London -based journalist, Pippa Neal, published an article that

would change Bentham.

Through a year -long investigation for the environmental magazine Enns Report,

she obtained documents showing that testing of groundwater, the water that

beneath surface level on the Angus Fire site, had revealed the highest known

concentrations of forever chemicals ever recorded in the UK.

The testing was carried out by consultants on behalf of Angus Fire in

But until Pippa's article, none of that was publicly known.

She's agreed to help us make this documentary.

When you're talking about chemicals that are potentially carcinogenic and can

harm human health, there's a huge sense of responsibility there.

I understood as soon as I saw the levels of PFAS on the Angus Fire site that

these were incredibly high PFAS levels and that this was a really important

story to investigate and to tell.

Pippa is meeting with John McCabe, who worked as a foam chemist at Angus Fire

for seven months in 2014.

It was one of his first jobs after university.

This is where the foam was made.

And then you've got the testing, where the products were tested down here.

What happened to the runoff, the wastewater, when they would do these

fires? So you'd light the fires, you'd do your testing, once all of that's

the burnt fuels and all the residues of liquid would be runoff into the lagoons

where the runoff would go to.

Runoff from the lagoons flowed directly into the sewer.

From there, it ran into the river Wenning.

Back then, the discharge of PFAS to the sewer broke no rules.

Not only were the lagoons discharging to the river, but they were overtopping

and spilling out.

That wouldn't surprise me. Really? Yeah. Did you view that as a problem?

Potentially, yeah.

But I suppose at the time I didn't really speak up on it.

In 2023, after John had left the company, the Environment Agency warned

Fire that its licence to use the lagoons could be suspended due to discharges of

PFAS into the groundwater.

Those lagoons are no longer in use.

I think knowing what I know now, if I...

If I went back in time, I think I would have done things differently. I think I

would have been a lot more concerned with the general state of the health and

safety involved.

Tests conducted by Angus Fire showed that communal gardens of houses on one

in particular, Duke Street, were being contaminated with PFAS.

The residents on Duke Street, they were using those gardens to grow food.

It's upsetting, I'd say.

I think the company could have done better in general.

Matt Young runs a tech repair shop in town.

He set up campaign group Cleaner Bentham following Pippa's reporting.

So the basic principle of Clean Abundance is to find and publish the

pollution.

Most of the conversations that we're having are about ill health.

I've put up a screen with a PowerPoint presentation and it basically explains

how the Forever Kevin course, PFAS, which was in the foam, which are good

fighting fires, are bad for the environment and people.

What kind of response are you getting?

Positive and negative.

You know, in a quiet little town of 3 ,000 people, it's not something you

expect, and I don't think the majority of people in Bentham expected it either.

I've been told that there was a gentleman...

Just trying to stir it up.

Give them a bad name.

Well, you won't get me giving them a bad name. They've only brought good to

Bentham.

You're not concerned at all about the stories that have come out about

Well, you can see me. I've been here since 1969 and it's not done me any

has it?

Others in town are worried.

Rachel Willison was a practice nurse at Bentham Medical Practice for over 20

years.

There are certain conditions where we've definitely been surprised that there

seemed to be a high level of it.

I did feel that there were a lot of people that unfortunately had cancer.

A recent study estimated that Bentham tends to have higher incidence of some

cancers compared to the surrounding area.

One of the authors of the study has carried out a further analysis of cancer

diagnoses in Bentham.

In terms of urinary cancers, which contains kidney, testicular

cancers, they tend to be detected more frequently than what

is usually found in the region.

We don't know the cause of the cancer rates in Bentham, and the report's

warn that the data should be interpreted cautiously.

John was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2016.

It's one of the cancers linked with PFAS exposure.

Let's have a good attack here.

Take your right kidney out, it's full of cancer.

After his right kidney was removed, a further cancer developed.

And I've had two operations in the urethra, it was full of cancer.

But now I'm not fit enough to even give them a chance to repair it.

No, I know what you're saying.

I respected the consultant's wording.

And he said, John, if I try to do something like that, he shook my hand

said, you'll die on the table.

So I respected him for being straight.

They said I was too weak to stand out really.

It's a bit of a shock, isn't it?

I think it's all ironic because all this is coming out and it's quite upsetting,

isn't it?

Exposure to some forever chemicals can raise cancer risk.

But we can't know for sure if it's a factor in any individual diagnosis.

Never give it a thought about Angus until it's all come out. But now I'm

thinking, no, right?

But whether it's to do with Angus, I don't know. It does make you think, you

know, am I going to be getting anything soon?

But you never know.

For more than a year, the community has been searching for answers.

Amid mounting pressure, Bentham Town Council holds a meeting.

Angus Fire was invited to attend.

Unexpectedly, Angus Fire pulls out, just before the meeting starts.

However, they received a number of questions, a significant number of

And I think it's their fault, sorry, not fault, their thought that the meeting

would become an Angus -led meeting.

So they thought that for the benefit of the residents,

it was probably better that they didn't attend.

Do you want to follow up on that?

Pippa is here too, and wants to know how far the contamination may have spread.

The panel tries to reassure residents that Angus Fire will engage independent

consultants.

to gather evidence about how far the contamination has spread.

You keep saying we need more information, we're waiting for more

You know, you say that about health as well. You won't do anything until you

have more information.

How long will it take?

From what I can tell from where we are in the investigation, again pending any

more information.

is actually the sort of behaviours that we are encouraged to take on a daily

basis to prevent ourselves from health harm should cover us off from what we

see around PFAS as well. So things like washing and peeling vegetables to get

all the soil off.

Taking part in routine health screening.

At the moment, there's just not enough information the council can use really

determine how toxic PFAS is.

And at the moment, that information is lacking.

I think it's been a productive meeting this evening.

There's lots of questions that have been asked, some have been answered, some

haven't been answered, but we've got them and we'll follow up with those.

So thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

Angus didn't turn up to the public meeting.

But in private, they've been meeting with residents on Duke Street, whose

is back on to the test site.

After Pippa's article was published, The company began offering to buy their

properties.

By autumn, all but one has sold up and left.

When I first came to Bentham, people were living here unknowing that they

potentially at risk.

You know, 12 months later, this street is empty.

They told residents that they admitted no liability.

and that the offers were a goodwill gesture.

Some of these people, their families had lived on this street for generations.

Others had moved here, brought their families here, believing this would be

their forever home.

And they were faced with the decision of, what if they didn't take the offer?

They were ultimately trapped, not knowing if their health was at risk and

knowing if in the future they would ever be able to sell their homes.

For me, there are many questions over whether residents have been put at risk

living here.

And are they still at risk?

For decades, Angus Fire, a factory at the heart of Bentham, produced and

firefighting foam that contained PFAS, a family of synthetic chemicals, some of

which have been linked to cancer and other diseases.

Many in the community have been trying to learn more about these chemicals.

I used to take my kids down here.

It was perfect.

For Angela, who is ill, the most pressing concern is whether harmful

have entered the bodies of residents and workers.

Does what's happening now in Bentham cast that in a different light?

Yeah, I wish I'd never done it. I wish I'd never taken the kids down there now.

Behind this fencing here...

is where all the burning goes on and the extinguishing.

It is a beautiful place, but, you know, it's got this looming over

it really, hasn't it? And it needs to be... We just need some answers.

Here we go.

To try to find answers, Angela and 38 others have accepted our offer to get

their blood tested for the chemicals.

Everyone who took part lives within a kilometre of the factory or is a current

or former worker of Angus Fire.

The analysis was carried out by Eurofins, a global leader in

testing. It's the first time the community has been offered blood

And after five weeks, the results are back from the lab.

Oh, it's quite high then, isn't it?

Scientists say values above two nanograms per millilitre for certain

blood are associated with the potential for adverse health effects.

11 .736.

And for that increase...

at risk of kidney and testicular cancer. Well, I can count one out, but I've

definitely got tumour in my kidney, so...

Everyone who took part in our

testing has a level of two or over.

John Taylor, a former Angus Fire employee, has a level of eight.

I think I expected it to say, oh, your blood's 100 % not all that.

Now facing an inoperable cancer diagnosis, he's taken aback by the

I'm just thinking, flipping heck, I've got more of these faults on me.

I think it just makes you sit up and take notice.

Values above 20 are associated with an increased risk of adverse health

Thomas Davies' garden backs onto the factory.

The level in his blood is 28.

So can I pass it on to anybody else?

No, it's not infectious.

It's not infectious.

No, that'll do me.

Well, it's not something balling then.

Well, I don't know really. It's just that it was a bit higher than probably

I did expect.

Not really bothering me. I can't pass it on, so why should I bother at my age?

Nine out of the 39 people tested had PFAS levels above 20, putting them in

highest risk category.

Stephen lives on Duke Street, in the row of houses where communal gardens have

been contaminated with PFAS.

He's the last remaining resident.

The others left after Angus Fire bought their houses.

They also offered to buy his.

The level in your blood is 43 nanograms per millimetre,

so that is above that 20.

that is seen as putting you in the highest risk category?

Well, I've been here about 40 years and lived with it. I've grown all our own

veg and eaten it all.

But I've got cancer, so it's cured.

I just have to carry on.

This is the time.

Oh, no, there's no Billups.

A growing body of research is revealing that there may be other health problems

associated with PFAS exposure.

These include reproductive issues.

Stephen Ilston has lived in Bentham for his entire life.

Until recently, he worked for a company that shares the Angus Fire site.

His result is 55.

So it's high, is that what it's saying, basically?

So your level is above two times the upper... Nice.

OK.

I have had trouble conceiving children, which led to incredibly

bad mental health and a pretty rough few years of my life.

So it's good to hear that it's not me.

Maybe it's PFAS that's caused it.

The highest result among those tested was detected in a former worker at Angus

Fire.

They have a blood PFAS level of 405.

They decided not to take part in this film.

Rachel Harrison grew up in Bentham and is now raising her young children here.

Her level is two, but her children are significantly higher.

Quite a lot above that level.

And then why am I so low?

If there's a...

so high.

Her three -year -old daughter's level is 10, her one -year -old son's 13.

Yeah, I'm a bit shocked.

I think I just didn't want to think that the children were affected by it.

Like, they might be fine, it might not affect their lives, but it might.

In the UK, there are no official guidelines for safe levels of PFAS in

The guidance provided to residents in Bentham comes from the scientific body

advising the US government, where public health research on PFAS is more

advanced than in the UK.

Yeah, I think it's quite confusing.

I think because we don't know enough information yet.

It's hard to know what to do next. What do I do with this information?

In America, greater awareness of forever chemicals has been driven by legal

action.

Lawyer Rob Billott says authorities worldwide have been too slow to

the health impacts of PFAS.

This is a global problem.

But it's frustrating as I watch this to see folks just now realizing these

chemicals are even out there and then saying, well, we don't know much about

them. Yes, we do.

He raised the alarm on PFAS almost three decades ago.

It was in 1998 that I got a call in my office with a gentleman who was raising

cattle in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Mr. Tennant, he was noticing that they were starting to develop tumors.

Their teeth were turning black.

Calves were being born, stillborn.

These animals had started dropping dead.

The chemical giant DuPont.

one of the biggest chemical manufacturers in the world, owned a

discharged wastewater into a creek on Wilbur Tennant's farm.

He was sure there was something in that water that was making these animals

sick.

So you can get a good look at him.

This thing, it's unbelievable.

Bill Ott sued DuPont on behalf of his client, gaining access to thousands of

internal documents.

When I started digging through some of the DuPont records, I started seeing

references to this chemical PFOA.

PFOA, a type of PFAS forever chemical, was being used in DuPont's Teflon

manufacturing process to make consumer goods like non -stick pots and pans,

hailed as miracle products.

But internally, studies carried out on work as an animal pointed to alarming

health impacts linked to the chemical.

The DuPont scientists were worried. This is getting into the public water. It's

toxic. It's persistent.

It's bioaccumulative. It could have these cancer effects.

What was very disturbing to me was it became clear.

that this was a problem that wasn't just something impacting Mr. Tennant and his

family.

We were dealing with a chemical that was likely getting into the drinking water

that nobody knew about.

Years later, Billott's story would be made into the hard -hitting Hollywood

movie, Dark Waters.

It reveals the emotional impact of what he found.

It's just me.

Rob, you need to tell me what in the hell is going on.

We're being poisoned.

Without admitting liability,

DuPont settles Wilbur Tennant's case, as well as the class action lawsuit that

followed. when 70 ,000 people in West Virginia and Ohio discovered their

drinking water had been contaminated by the factory.

As part of that settlement, a panel of independent scientists was set up to

carry out groundbreaking research on PFOA.

Among that panel of three scientists was British epidemiologist Dr. Tony

Fletcher.

I first learned about PFAS when I had a call from a lawyer in the US saying,

would I like to get involved in this DuPont legal case as an expert advisor

identify what are the health effects of PFOA?

Over seven years, the panel carried out one of the largest epidemiological

studies of its kind.

69 ,000 of those affected by the contamination.

provided blood samples and other medical data.

In 2012, the panel published its findings.

We concluded six diseases were probably linked to that exposure.

Two cancers, kidney and testicular cancer, raised cholesterol, ulcerative

colitis, thyroid disease and preeclampsia, that's high blood pressure

pregnancy.

As a result of the scientific evidence linking PFOA to serious illness, the US

government implemented new drinking water standards and began monitoring

drinking water for the chemical.

This revealed widespread contamination across the country, linked to one

in particular.

After the 60s, for the next several decades, firefighting foam was used at

almost every military base across the country, airports, fire stations, fire

training facilities.

And how are you told to use firefighting foam?

You spray it out all over the ground.

So for decades, Communities were exposed because this stuff would seep down into

the groundwater or flow into a stream or into a lake.

So suddenly thousands of claims are filed by individuals claiming cancers

personal injuries.

Kevin Volker is one of thousands of people in the U .S. bringing personal

claims against firefighting foam manufacturers.

I was a police officer.

You know, it's a tough, tough life.

Work a lot of hours, work a lot of overnight.

Well, I was having some stomach issues and a lot of pain.

And so I went to the emergency room and they found that there was a mass on my

kidney.

The doctor told me it was, you know, cancerous, clear cell carcinoma.

As a police officer, you know, you go through some seriously dangerous

situations, and this was different.

Kevin had part of his left kidney removed.

After the surgery, it ran into a very old friend of mine. He started to kind

tell me a little bit about the PFASs in, you know, any area. He explained that

the PFASs had gotten into the water.

I was like, oh, geez.

I wonder if my issue was related to all that water I was drinking.

The legal claim is that firefighting foam used at two former military bases

Pennsylvania contaminated the groundwater in the surrounding area.

Over time, PFAS chemicals from the foam leached into public drinking water.

Not all PFAS are proven to be toxic, but some of the chemicals that have been

used in firefighting foam are linked to a higher risk of cancer and other health

problems.

We grew up down the road, a couple miles down the road, and the base is only a

few miles down the road there.

Yeah, nobody knew. That's the worst part about it.

Kevin's sons have lived in the area their entire lives.

Every time I have to get one of these MRIs, CAT scans, blood work.

I'm always anxious what the findings could be.

And I worry about you two guys. You know, future issues that either both of

can have.

Some challenging times. We managed to navigate through it.

I don't have a tissue to give you. Mine's got lemon on it.

Appreciate you guys.

Glad you're still here.

Now I want some justice and accountability for everybody.

Not just myself, but all the victims.

Somebody needs to speak for them, right?

We can't give Evan Volker and others like him back their kidney.

or undo the experience of having to undergo treatment for cancer.

And holding these companies who knew about this potential to account is

at stake.

Kevin is part of a class -action lawsuit.

The cases date back to 2016.

One of the companies being sued is Angus Fire's American sister company,

National Foam.

The company isn't involved in Kevin's case, but is defending thousands of

others.

The foam manufacturers deny the allegations against them.

Gary Douglas is the lead trial lawyer, representing thousands of people who

claim they have been impacted.

This is, in my view, the greatest, single greatest man -made environmental

disaster, second, perhaps, only to global warming and climate change.

If you wanted to contaminate the environment, you could not have invented

better delivery device than firefighting film.

Firefighting foam is mainly used to fight fuel fires and in firefighter

training.

The firefighters are literally spraying it into the environment.

It's persistent.

It will never disintegrate or degrade.

It will leach through the soil and into the aquifers, and that's why we find it

virtually every person.

In the deepest depths of the ocean, in the highest tops of the highest

mountains.

People who live in the communities that surround the military bases, the

airports and the fire houses that regularly trained with firefighting foam

significantly higher levels in their blood.

And those people who are unfortunate to live in these communities were affected

disproportionately to the rest of the world.

We showed the PFAS blood test results from Bentham to Gary Douglas and his

partner, Rebecca Newman.

Well, these PFAS blood levels are significantly higher than what we would

term a background rate in the U .S. today.

I'm blown away.

These poor folks are walking around with very high levels that put them at great

risk.

It's not yet known how PFAS has entered the blood of residents in Bentham, and

authorities say drinking water in the town is safe.

Not everyone had elevated levels, but overall, Gary thinks the results are

significant.

These are comparable, if not even higher, than the

plaintiffs who were in our trial, who lived in a community that was highly

exposed.

What would you say to the people in this community?

I would say you should be carefully monitoring.

You should be proactive.

The National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine, NASM, would

that their physicians be proactive in screening for these health effects that

are now associated with exposure.

This could not have come from just ordinary...

household products.

They were living in close proximity to a facility that have used

these compounds that are now in their blood.

This is a smoking gun.

Across the UK, hundreds of thousands of litres of PFAS firefighting foam were

used from the 1970s onwards.

Used to extinguish fuel fires, the foam saved lives.

But there are now serious concerns over their persistence in the environment and

the impact some of them may have on human health.

Based in Bentham, North Yorkshire, Angus Fire stopped producing PFAS phones in

2024, ahead of a UK -wide ban.

But an investigation has revealed extremely high groundwater contamination

the site, and raised questions about whether the chemicals may have spread.

Now residents are making sense of the results from PFAS blood testing, which

we've facilitated here for the first time.

Would you like a cup? Yeah, just a top -up, please. Yeah, no worries.

Anne Robshaw has lived in Bentham for 35 years.

Her son Steve used to work at Angus Fire.

The level of PFAS in her blood is 11 nanograms per millilitre.

Putting her above the risk threshold of two.

Steve's level is eight.

It was 2004 when I got diagnosed with kidney cancer.

Yeah, 52 when I got it.

Things are throwing at you. You've just got to get on with it.

Yeah.

And that's how I am.

Tough.

Oh dear.

I can't really put it into words how it feels to

know that you were seriously ill and it could be the contribution from where I'm

living, unaware of what's going on.

So, yeah.

Having elevated level.

it worries you that it will contribute to something else health -wise.

So, can we get rid of them from the body?

It can be done.

Even to just reduce it is something I would like to know about.

Dr David Megson analysed our PFAS blood test results from Bentham.

I've done a few contamination studies in my time as a scientist and I think this

one is the one that stands out for just such a high proportion of people having

elevated exposure of PFAS. It was quite staggering.

Because no data is available for PFAS levels in blood across the UK, Dr.

compared the levels in Bentham with the general population in the US.

I was absolutely shocked when we started to run this data.

Nearly everybody we tested was above average and two -thirds of them were in

top 5%. A third of them were higher than anything we'd ever expect to see in the

background population.

His analysis found that the group had particularly high levels of PFOA.

PFOA is a type of PFAS, the same chemical uncovered in the public water

in West Virginia.

So the PFOA in particular is concerning because it's been linked to a known

human carcinogen as well as a wide range of other potential health effects.

Dr. Megson was struck by the high levels of PFAS. in the two young children who

were tested.

To see a one -year -old with the same kind of levels of PFAS as somebody who's

lived 30, 40, 50 years is quite upsetting.

We wanted to provide more information for the people who took part in the

testing, as well as their friends and family.

We arranged a meeting with Dr David Megson and Dr Tony Fletcher, two world

-leading experts.

Journalist Pippa Neal moderated the discussion.

My name is Tony Fletcher. I study patterns of disease and what may cause

We can be certain that...

there are adverse health effects caused by these chemicals and therefore it's

important to phase them out and one thing that we can confirm from the data

group you have unusually high levels of pfas especially the chemical pfoa

and and so based on this data it would have i think very strong suggestion

that there has been an additional exposure to you thanks

If I had levels of contamination in my body, is it possible to pass that on

through birth and through breastfeeding?

Absolutely, no.

When you give birth, the baby's blood is more or less the same as the mother's,

plus or minus a few percent.

And then if the mother then breastfeeds for six months, it more or less doubles

the level in the infant.

The general consensus seems to be that the benefits of breastfeeding far

outweigh that risk.

Can it affect the development of a fetus at all? One of the key effects that has

been identified in children is an apparent reduction in the immune system

effectiveness. So it's, you know, there is a concern.

The experts stress the importance of finding out how the chemicals have

people's bodies.

We've done this first step of the investigation and realised that as a

you've got an unusually high exposure.

The logical next step is to then go, OK, what is the pathway of the chemicals

coming out?

So you want your levels to go down. One of the best ways to achieve that is to

stop or reduce your exposure to let your body slowly get rid of it.

The high levels that we've seen on average could be related to locally

food. Land that has been contaminated, vegetables grown in that can then lead

you getting exposed.

Someone needs to do some systematic measurements to see how far that

contamination is and give some advice on whether or not that could be a

significant route of exposure for you.

I'm Thomas Davis. My back garden overlooks Angus's.

And I know very well my blood levels have raised.

And I grow a lot of fruit in the garden.

Right. I'm just wondering whether the fruit is safe to eat.

We don't know.

One of the questions... Sorry, would cooking the fruit

be better for me instead of eating it raw?

Cooking it shouldn't make much difference, no.

You'd need to get up to over 1 ,000 degrees, I think, to start breaking

chemicals down.

Right. Thank you.

Angus Byer say there is insufficient evidence to determine how many people

been exposed to PFAS from the Bentham site, if any.

There are a lot of people that have unanswered questions about illnesses and

things like that and where they've come from.

I think we need to just get what the truth is.

And all these people of our age, a little bit older, a little bit younger,

cancer. It's bloody ridiculous.

It's not normal.

It's quite scary.

It's scary.

For my children and my grandchildren, what's the outcome

for them?

I'd like Angus to own up to what they've been doing.

Pippa Neill has been covering the unfolding situation in Bentham since her

reporting first revealed the contamination at Angus Fire.

Like the scientists, she is trying to get to the bottom of the levels of PFAS

residents' blood.

In particular, she's trying to understand the presence of PFOA, a

Angus Fire said that they only ever used trace amounts in their products. If

Angus Fire only ever used trace amounts of PFOA in its products, why has it been

found in really large quantities in the environment? And why is it also being

discovered in residents' blood?

Now she has uncovered a set of emails that suggest some people at the company

were concerned that firefighting foam may break down into PFOA.

Could this account for the high levels of the chemicals found on the site?

I've discovered documents that were disclosed by National Foam as part of

class action lawsuit that's happening in the US over PFAS pollution from

firefighting foam.

Class action lawsuit includes National Foam as a defendant.

And National Foam is the US sister company of Angus Fire. And the two

they are both owned by the same parent company.

Complex emails from National Foam employees from over 20 years ago seem to

discuss the potential breakdown of PFAS foams into PFOA.

In 2006, the US Environmental Protection Agency said that PFOA was likely to

be carcinogenic in humans.

and advised products containing or breaking down into the chemical should

phased out.

Two years later, an email between two UK -based Angus Fire employees, including

the then technical director, warns that tightening US regulations could hurt

their supply chains.

We showed the emails to Dr. Megson.

The emails clearly state that They are aware their product breaks down into

PFOA. Knowing that your product degrades into this chemical makes me feel quite

uncomfortable that they maybe knew about the risk.

National Foam told us that the emails between the National Foam employees

shows two people talking about foams in general and how they behave in lab

conditions.

Angus Fire says the PFOA measured in people's blood could come from many

different sources.

and has more likely come from consumer items than from Angus Fire.

They say they do not believe the emails contain any materials relevant to the

present situation in Bentham.

The American Science Panel findings linking PFOA to six serious illnesses

published in 2012, but successive Environment Agency reports show that

Fire continued to discharge the chemical from the site for over a decade after

that.

The regulator also documented multiple failings by Angus Fire in their handling

of PFAS Forever chemicals, from leaking wastewater lagoons to faulty drainage,

but they never prosecuted or fined the company.

The big challenge for the Environment Agency, for other regulators in England,

the UK and globally, is that the science is...

still emerging. There's still uncertainty over the health impacts for

for the environment.

If we are asking or telling an operator to reduce the amount of a chemical or a

PFAS that they're putting into the environment, we've got to be able to

that because there is a cost involved.

But by 2012 it was very clear to...

international scientific community that there were serious health impacts

connected with these chemicals, particularly of PFOA.

Was the Environment Agency sleeping on the issue of PFAS?

Not at all.

The Environment Agency's scientists have been looking and advising on the

environmental risks of PFAS for over two decades.

That advice...

was used to help the international community develop a ban on PFOS and

PFOA.

But we've uncovered internal documents which show that by 2024, the regulator

was being warned by experts that the chemicals may have spread, not only

wastewater runoff as previously thought, but in airborne PFAS emissions from

test fires.

and that residents who eat homegrown fruit and veg, grown in contaminated

could be at risk.

We asked why that still hadn't been communicated to the public.

That advice has been shared with other regulators whose responsibility it is to

advise the public on.

health and and mitigation to sort of avoid contact or avoid exposure we can't

advising the public on um sort of elements of human health that's not

expertise and not within our legal remit i mean do you think that something's

gone wrong here in the regulation that these chemicals have gotten so far that

they've gotten into people's blood

My heart goes out to those people. I think that, you know, the not knowing,

anxiety is really difficult. The uncertainty of that community and other

communities that we're working with across the country.

It's not a nice place to be. So we've got an awful lot to do from Environment

Agency's point of view. But that includes, as I said, other authorities,

regulators and the government's role as well. So this is not something we are

ignoring. We are very focused on this.

The Environment Agency is currently investigating Angus Fire over PFAS

contamination in and around the Bentham factory.

Back in Bentham, experts have questioned whether locally grown food could be

causing the contamination found in people's blood.

I feel heartbroken.

Rules have been broken and people's safety and health has not been taken

consideration.

Blood testing revealed that the level of PFAS in Rachel Woolerton's blood is 34.

So, here is my freezer.

Let's see what's in here.

full of fruit and vegetables that we've not known what to do with. We've just

been in limbo.

When growing your own produce is part of who you are, to find that your garden

may not be safe to do that is shocking,

totally devastating.

And are we going to eat it? And are we going to have people around?

offer that food to them with a clear conscience.

We're probably going to pay privately to have our soil tested because we need

information.

Other people in the community don't have a budget for any of that.

Like most of the people who took part in blood testing, Rachel's house is not

one of those that backs onto the test -fire site.

If her garden proves to be affected, it could suggest wider contamination than

was originally thought.

Across the UK, concern is growing over the threat posed by Forever Chemicals.

There are thought to be up to 10 ,000 PFAS contaminated hotspots across the

country, many of them linked to firefighting foam.

The Fire Brigade Union has called for urgent action as their members worked

the foam for decades.

Foams containing two of the most researched PFAS chemicals, PFOA and

now banned, but others are still in use.

Some say the UK is years behind the EU in tackling the issue.

There, authorities are proposing a blanket ban on all forever chemicals.

With fears the pollution could be widespread, the government released a

action plan last month.

The fact that the government has woken up to this problem and is actually

setting out a plan promising to do things is an amazing step.

But the reality for me is that this is just a plan to have a plan.

It doesn't really set out any concrete actions that the government will take

today to deal with PFAS pollution.

DEFRA have recently published a PFAS action plan, which was brilliant. We've

been calling for that for several years.

In my opinion, I don't think it really goes far enough. I would have liked to

see more about... the potentially contaminated sites and how we're going

managing them.

It's raised questions in his mind.

This was Christine's last ever photo.

That was Ball's presentation night.

She got up and thanked them all for... thanked me for being her

rock.

And thanked the club for being my rock.

She got breast cancer when she was 50.

But we didn't know about Angus's then.

About the chemicals and what the body was doing.

It has made me wonder really, but...

Now we just don't know how she got

breast cancer.

Early studies suggest that some PFAS... could be connected to breast cancer

risk, but further research is needed.

I feel sad for Bentham people.

Like that young family.

They must be very anxious with that baby.

So many people are fated by it.

If Angus is closed, there'd be no work for him. So what's the alternative?

You have to try and stay level about it and not be living in fear that my

children might be affected later in life.

You're just desperately hoping that they're not going to be ill from it or

they're not going to develop a cancer related to this.

We are actually planning to move out of Bentham.

There's a lot of reasons why.

If I have the opportunity to move my children away from something that could

cause them harm, you're going to do that.

But, yeah, I just have a concern for

others that can't do that. And I love them, so we're not moving far.

But it is.

is a factor in our decision making.

And this is Angus Fire on the right now.

It's just a shock how it's all coming out into, you know, contamination.

I think I'm just a bit shocked if my really poor elf has something to do

with it, you know.

I don't blame Angus in any way.

I suppose it's like a lot of things.

You don't know there's a problem until things come to light, you know.

People have asked me, are you going to move?

At the moment, no, I have no intention of moving because I feel that I'm in a

better position now than I've ever been.

Because we're watching now.

There's knowledge.

And being aware that there are potentially 10 ,000 other PFAS sites,

I'd be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire if we sold up and left

Is there a part of you that wishes you didn't know?

Yeah.

I'd love to live in fairyland and think that we... It was just as beautiful as

it looked to eat and breathe and walk.

But I do know.

And I can't pretend that I don't.

Yeah.