{"id":485621,"date":"2026-03-20T10:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T10:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485621\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T10:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T10:01:08","slug":"people-in-north-yorkshire-town-found-to-have-alarming-levels-of-toxic-pfas-chemicals-in-blood-pfas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485621\/","title":{"rendered":"People in North Yorkshire town found to have \u2018alarming\u2019 levels of toxic Pfas chemicals in blood | Pfas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alarming levels of toxic forever chemicals have been found in the blood of people living in a town previously revealed<\/a> to be contaminated with the UK\u2019s highest recorded level of Pfas.<\/p>\n

Pfas, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and commonly known as forever chemicals because of their persistence in the environment, have been linked to a wide range of serious illnesses, including some cancers. They are used in a variety of consumer products but one of their most prolific uses is in firefighting foam.<\/p>\n

In May 2024, Ends Report<\/a> and the Guardian<\/a> published an investigation revealing that groundwater in the small rural town of Bentham in North Yorkshire was contaminated with the highest level of Pfas ever known to be recorded in the UK. This was found on land belonging to Angus Fire, a factory that between 1976 and 2024 legally produced Pfas-containing firefighting foam.<\/p>\n

Blood testing conducted as part of a new ITV documentary that will be broadcast on Sunday night, produced in collaboration with Ends Report<\/a>, has revealed that residents and former workers at the factory have \u201calarming\u201d levels of these chemicals in their blood.<\/p>\n

In the UK, there are no guidelines indicating what constitutes a safe level of Pfas in blood. However in the US, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (Nasem) has said that if the sum of seven Pfas chemicals in blood is above 2 ng\/ml, there is a potential for adverse health effects.<\/p>\n

The highest Pfas level in blood recorded in Bentham was 405 ng\/ml \u2013 more than 200 times greater than the US risk level of 2 ng\/ml. This was recorded in the blood of a former worker at Angus Fire who has asked to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

If the Pfas level in the blood is above 20 ng\/ml, then Nasem says there is an increased risk of adverse effects and that clinicians should consider more frequent, targeted health screenings.<\/p>\n

Almost a quarter (23%) of the 39 people who underwent blood testing in Bentham had levels that place them in the highest risk category. Among them was 34-year-old Stephen Illston, who has a Pfas level of 55 ng\/ml.<\/p>\n

Illston has had trouble conceiving children. He said his infertility problems had led to poor mental health and years when he questioned his \u201cusefulness on the earth\u201d.<\/p>\n

A growing body of research is revealing that Pfas are associated with reproductive health problems, including lower sperm count<\/a>. Stephen said that finding out he had elevated Pfas in his blood was \u201can answer that I\u2019ve been searching for\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to hear it\u2019s not me, maybe it\u2019s the Pfas that\u2019s caused it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr David Megson, a forensic environmental scientist and Pfas expert at Manchester Metropolitan University who carried out an analysis of the blood results to compare them to Pfas levels in the US population, said he was \u201cabsolutely shocked\u201d when he saw the Bentham data. He said the levels were \u201cexceptionally high compared to a general [US] background population\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it was just normal, we should have half the people above [and] half the people below average. [But] nearly everybody we tested was above average and two-thirds of them were in the top 5%. A third of them were higher than anything we\u2019d ever expect to see in the background population. So that was really shocking, and quite staggering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Shubhi Sharma from the environmental charity Chem Trust said: \u201cThe Pfas levels in people\u2019s blood in Bentham are alarming, especially given that these chemicals have been linked to a variety of adverse health outcomes including certain cancers.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Angus Fire spokesperson said that there was \u201cno accepted way of interpreting blood tests for Pfas internationally and there is limited agreement on the relationship between Pfas exposure, blood levels and health effects\u201d.<\/p>\n

They said it was \u201cunfounded to classify [the] blood data as \u2018unusually high\u2019 in the UK context\u201d. They added that the blood test group in Bentham was \u201cextremely small\u201d and said: \u201cWhile we appreciate that these findings may cause concern, having raised Pfas levels in blood is neither an indicator of health, nor of the way in which Pfas has been absorbed.\u201d<\/p>\n

An internal Environment Agency report in 2024 said \u2018aerial dispersal\u2019 from foam testing could expose residents to Pfas through \u2018consumption of allotment produce and produce grown within private gardens\u2019. Photograph: Jill Mead\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Dr Tony Fletcher, an epidemiologist and a world-leading Pfas expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the fact there were a number of people in Bentham who \u201chave high levels well above 20 ng\/ml\u201d who didn\u2019t work at the factory suggested that \u201cthey were getting exposed in the community\u201d.<\/p>\n

An internal Environment Agency report produced in 2024 suggested that airborne emissions from the factory could be a likely pathway for this exposure.<\/p>\n

The report states that \u201caerial dispersal\u201d from foam testing at the factory could lead to Pfas exposure for site workers and exposure to residents through the \u201cconsumption of allotment produce and produce grown within private gardens\u201d. The probability of this happening, it adds, is considered \u201clikely\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fletcher said this could be possible because during the testing of Pfas firefighting foams, the chemicals could \u201cget up into the air\u201d, which could then \u201crain down or settle some distance from the plant and then it soaks down into the ground and you either get exposed to the water or to food grown in the ground\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lindsay Young, who has a Pfas level of 30ng\/ml, said test fires on the Angus Fire site were a frequent occurrence. \u201cThe siren goes off and then you know the smoke is coming in five or 10 minutes and you have to go inside. It\u2019s huge billowing gusts of black smoke. You don\u2019t know what\u2019s in it, no one tells you what\u2019s in it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Angus Fire said that the risk in the Environment Agency report was \u201coverstated\u201d and said that as a manufacturer of firefighting foams, they \u201cresponsibly carry out routine fire tests to ensure our products are fit for purpose\u201d. The firm said it had stopped testing Pfas foams in Bentham in 2022 and that former operations at Angus Fire were not the sole source of Pfas in the environment in the Bentham area.<\/p>\n

The Environment Agency said that the fire testing was not regulated as part of the site\u2019s permit, and that the regulation of these fires would be the responsibility of the local council. However, North Yorkshire<\/a> council said that due to the company\u2019s connection with firefighting, the test fires were exempt from the Clean Air Act 1993, which otherwise prohibits emissions of dark smoke from trade or business premises.<\/p>\n

Fletcher is part of a scientific panel advising the Jersey government after private drinking water supplies in Jersey were polluted by the use of firefighting foams containing Pfas at the airport.<\/p>\n

The panel has advised<\/a> the Jersey government that for women of childbearing age who have a Pfas level of over 10 ng\/ml, or anyone with a level of over 20 ng\/ml and eligible for cholesterol lowering medication, clinicians should consider prescribing colesevelam, a cholesterol drug that has been found to lower Pfas levels in the first instance, with bloodletting to be considered<\/a> as a second-line offer.<\/p>\n

Fletcher has said that people in Bentham who have elevated Pfas in their blood and who want to reduce it could discuss these options with a physician.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Angus Fire said: \u201cWe recognise the concerns about potentially damaging environmental impacts from historical operations at our facility and regret the inconvenience and worry that this has caused in Bentham.<\/p>\n

\u201cAngus Fire has been working diligently for a number of years alongside independent and industry-leading environmental consultants and the Environment Agency to establish the extent of any Pfas chemical contamination [\u2026] Angus Fire has always followed guidelines as set out by the UK regulatory and health authorities. Our own understanding of these chemicals evolved at the same rate as those of the regulators.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alarming levels of toxic forever chemicals have been found in the blood of people living in a town…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-485621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}