Residents near Lancashire chemical plant told of elevated 'forever chemical' blood levels
Almost 70% of 49 Thornton-Cleveleys residents tested had high-risk PFAS levels in their blood, in the first testing of people living near the Hillhouse chemical site.
Residents of Thornton-Cleveleys in Lancashire have been told their blood contains hugely elevated levels of banned “forever chemicals”, after the first testing of people living near a chemical factory linked to historic emissions, The Times reports.
Of 49 people tested, almost 70 per cent were classed as high-risk on a US-devised scale (above 20 nanograms per millilitre; none were low-risk below 2 ng/ml). One had the highest level of a synthetic chemical ever recorded in the UK — hundreds of times what scientists would expect generally.
Dr David Megson, a reader in chemistry and environmental forensics at Manchester Metropolitan University who coordinated the testing, said: “I was really surprised at the scale of it… I felt sick.”
Chemical manufacturing has run at the Hillhouse site near the River Wyre since the 1890s; AGC Chemicals Europe bought a factory there in 1999. AGC estimated 115 tonnes of PFOA were released from 1950 to 2012, before it stopped using the chemical, banned globally in 2020. It then switched to EEA-NH4, releasing 783kg a year into the Wyre; in February the Health and Safety Executive said the substance warranted classification as one that may damage an unborn child.
The link between the site and the blood results has not been definitively established. The UK Health Security Agency said the presence of forever chemicals in blood did not indicate the source of exposure, nor mean they would suffer future health conditions. AGC said the tests did not provide a complete basis for definitive conclusions.
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