\u201cEverything I wanted was finally coming to fruition. A house, a change of job and getting married,\u201d says Liz Hurst, looking out to sea on a hot evening in Blackpool.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then all of a sudden, everything was put on hold.\u201d Fifteen years ago, Hurst was diagnosed with kidney cancer aged 32.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctors told me they didn\u2019t know why I\u2019d got it, they said it was very uncommon for somebody of my age and sex,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Last month, a government commissioned study<\/a> found there was higher-than-expected rates of kidney cancer in the vicinity of the AGC Chemicals Europe manufacturing plant in Thornton-Cleveleys, a town to the north of Blackpool where Hurst lived until recently.<\/p>\n Between the 1950s and 2012, the facility emitted an estimated 49 tonnes of the carcinogenic chemical Pfoa.<\/p>\n Pfoa \u2013 perfluorooctanoic acid \u2013 is a type of Pfas that international research has linked<\/a> to kidney cancer. Pfas, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are commonly known as forever chemicals because they do not break down in the environment. The Thornton-Cleveleys factory, which AGC Chemicals Europe bought in 1999, used Pfoa to make PTFE \u2013 polytetrafluoroethylene \u2013 another type of forever chemical used to make non-stick coatings. Pfoa was banned globally in 2020.<\/p>\n Despite the higher rates, the study in Thornton-Cleveleys found no evidence of a cancer cluster or of any environmental association for the elevated kidney cancer rates, and it is not possible to know whether one person\u2019s cancer was caused by their exposure to Pfoa. But world-leading experts have described the study\u2019s findings as a \u201cmajor source of concern\u201d and believe further investigation, including blood testing, is necessary.<\/p>\n Residents were advised not to eat eggs laid within 1km of the factory and to wash and peel homegrown produce. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Hurst says AGC Chemicals Europe played an outsized role in her life growing up. She says she remembers regular \u201ccloud burst drills\u201d at her primary school to prepare in the event of a chemical spill. She also spent several summers working in the factory\u2019s labs as a young science student. \u201cIt was just always there,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for AGC Chemicals Europe says that as far as it could establish, the company was not involved in the drills.<\/p>\n Amid rising global concern over the harmful impact of Pfas chemicals on human health and the environment, in 2024 the local council and the Environment Agency (EA) initiated an investigation into historical emissions from the site. As part of this, soil and local produce was tested for Pfoa. After widespread soil contamination<\/a> was recorded, residents were advised not to eat eggs laid within 1km of the factory and to wash and peel homegrown fruit and vegetables.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw an article in the local paper about the contamination and so I started looking into it,\u201d Hurst says. \u201cI read about what diseases were linked to it and when I saw kidney cancer, I just went cold. I just want to know if it has caused my cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n Hurst has been cancer free since 2019 after having her left kidney removed.<\/p>\n As regulators decide what to do next and scientists analyse the data, life for those living in the shadow of the factory continues.<\/p>\n Alan Hodson says his allotment had been his sanctuary. The local council has told him it has no choice but to shut the whole place down. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n For the past five years, Alan Hodson, 61, has had a plot on allotments that border the AGC Chemicals Europe site. The allotment has become his sanctuary, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just gets me out for a few hours,\u201d Hodson says. \u201cI just have a potter around, leave my problems outside and then when I go home, my mind\u2019s cleared, the brain fog has lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n The factory\u2019s constant hum can be heard from the allotment. Hodson says he did question its proximity when he was first given the keys to his plot, but assumed it would be safe. This changed last year when a group of men in hi-vis jackets came to the allotment to test the soil and produce.<\/p>\n A few months later Hodson received a hand-delivered letter informing him that his beetroot contained the highest level of Pfoa of all of the products tested. There is no \u201csafe level\u201d for Pfoa in soil or food in the UK. But one soil sample from the allotment was seven times Belgium\u2019s guideline level for Pfoa in soil<\/a>.<\/p>\n The EA has since recommended the allotment be classified as officially contaminated land after concluding it meets the statutory criteria. Because of the potential risks to human health, the local council has told Hodson it has no choice but to shut the whole allotment down, and the locks are due to be changed any day.<\/p>\n Hodson has spent the past few weeks clearing his plot. \u201cThe strawberries in there, the birds have had them,\u201d he says, pointing to a raised bed he built when he first found out about the contamination. \u201cThere\u2019s stuff I\u2019ve spent money on, things I\u2019ve grown from seedlings that I\u2019ve just thrown away.\u201d<\/p>\n Hodson has been throwing away all the produce he has spent years cultivating. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019ve got a lead pair of wellies on,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve not been sleeping. I just think of all that time I spent here \u2013 I could\u2019ve been doing something else. It\u2019s just wasted time. I just want another plot.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Hammond, 48, lives next to the allotment with her five children. She has found out her garden is contaminated with Pfoa, and at a much higher level. One sample collected on behalf of the EA contained 40 times more Pfoa than the Belgian guideline level.<\/p>\n