Residents in a Yorkshire town have high levels of “forever chemicals”, some linked to cancer and other serious illnesses, in their blood, an ITV and ENDS Report investigation has found.
ITV’s Exposure found that a third of residents they tested in Bentham had high levels of PFAS chemicals in their bloodstreams.
PFAS are a group of millions of chemicals that are often described as forever chemicals because they take a long time to break down in the environment. Some of these chemicals are known and suspected carcinogens.
One of these is PFOA, which has been linked to kidney and testicular cancer.
For decades, Angus Fire, the main employer in Bentham, North Yorkshire, routinely manufactured and tested PFAS firefighting foams that contained traces of PFOA at its factory site.
Bentham High Street. Credit: ITV Exposure
Residents recall how test fires would be set on the site, and the foam would be used to put them out.
“I remember a siren going off, and then not long after a big black plume of smoke”, says Bentham local Angela McKinnell.
“Angus’s had these steel vats and they set fire to them. That’s when the smoke would go. And then they’d put them out with the extinguisher foam.
“We knew that not long after that, there’s going to be all this foam lying about.”
The PFAS contamination on the site of the factory in Bentham only came to light in 2024 after ENDS report journalist Pippa Neill conducted a year-long investigation.
She obtained documents showing that testing of groundwater on the Angus Fire site had revealed the highest known concentrations of forever chemicals ever recorded in the UK.
A reconstruction of the test fires carried out at Angus Fire. Credit: ITV Exposure
The testing was carried out by consultants on behalf of Angus Fire in 2008.
Despite this and growing evidence that PFOA caused harm to human health, Angus continued to use the foam until 2016. It stopped producing PFAS foams in 2024.
Everyone who took part in ITV Exposure’s blood testing lives within a kilometre of the factory or is a former or current worker at Angus Fire.
The testing analysis was carried out by Eurofins Environment Testing in Sacramento, California. The results revealed for the first time the levels of the chemicals they had in their bloodstream.
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In the UK, there are no official guidelines on safe levels of PFAS in the blood, so contributors were tested against NASEM standards, the scientific body that advises the U.S. government.
It says that PFAS levels of 2-20 nanograms per millilitre of blood are associated with the potential for adverse health effects. Those with levels above 20 would be at increased risk and are advised to have more frequent health screenings.
Nine of the 39 people tested had PFAS levels above 20, putting them in the highest risk category.
One former worker at Angus Fire recorded a blood PFAS level of 405. This is over 200 times higher than the lower risk threshold.
Angela McKinnell was one of the residents tested. She had a level of 12 in her blood. Angela has a tumour in her kidney, and worries about the health of her neighbours.
“All these people sort of our age, a little bit older, little bit younger. with cancer it’s ridiculous, it’s not normal,” she said.
Mum-of-two Rachel is worried about the potential impact of PFAS exposure on her children. Credit: ITV Exposure
Rachel Harrison has lived in Bentham all her life. She has a level of 2 in her blood, but her toddler has a level of 10, while her baby showed a level of 13.
“I’m a bit shocked… I think I just didn’t want to think that the children were affected by it. They might be fine. It might not affect their lives. But it might. It’s hard to know what to do next”.
Dr David Megson, an expert in environmental forensics at Manchester Metropolitan University, analysed the blood results for the programme.
Because no data is available for PFAS levels in blood across the UK, Dr Megson 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 the top 5%,” he said.
“A third of them were higher than anything we’d ever expect to see in the background population.
“I’ve done a few contamination studies in my time as a scientist and I think that 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.”
Dr David Megson, an expert in environmental forensics at Manchester Metropolitan University. Credit: ITV Exposure
In a town meeting to address the problem in June 2025, Angus Fire failed to send a representative.
Angus Fire says it chose not to attend the meeting to avoid overtaking the agenda.
The company says it has always engaged openly with the community in Bentham and elected representatives and that attendees were assured experts were undertaking work for Angus to provide answers to their questions.
The CEO of Angus Fire declined to be interviewed for the documentary.
Angus Fire says it has always followed legal guidelines and that extensive “containment” work has been carried out in recent years. It stresses that our small sample is not proof of harm caused by their actions.
The town of Bentham. Credit: ITV Exposure
But for some residents, that is not enough to allay their fears. After a lifetime in Bentham, Rachel has made the difficult decision to leave her hometown.
“If I have the opportunity to move my children away from something that would cause them harm, you are going to do that.”
Angus Fire says it has always followed guidelines as set out by the UK regulatory and health authorities and they were only made aware of the potentially harmful effects of PFAS and PFOA as industry and scientific knowledge grew and their understanding evolved at the same rate as that of regulators.
Watch In Our Blood: The Forever Chemicals Scandal on Sunday, March 22, at 22:15 on ITV or stream it on ITVX
In response to the PFAS blood test results in Bentham, Angus Fire says it is unfounded to classify the blood data as high because the UK does not have national blood PFAS guidance values, and the group tested was too small to draw conclusions about the wider Bentham community.
While it appreciates that these findings may cause concern, Angus Fire says having raised PFAS levels in blood is neither an indicator of health, nor of the way in which PFAS has been absorbed.
At present, the understanding of the site is insufficient to characterise the land quality, but since 2024, it has carried out significant investigative, containment, characterisation, and remediation work, including a stormwater treatment system that will reduce PFAS in rainwater that runs off the site.
The company says there is no demonstrated causal link between the historic use of PFAS in the products historically manufactured by Angus Fire and any increased cancer rate in Bentham, and no regulator or health authority has suggested otherwise.
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