New documentary and book lift the lid on one of Britain's biggest pollution scandals as campaigners demand an end to the toxic legacy – and warn that history is repeating itself.
A major new television documentary and upcoming book shine a light on Wales' long-buried PCB contamination scandal and the work of whistleblower Douglas Gowan. Wildlife and Countryside Link says it must serve as a warning, calling on governments across the UK to act now as history repeats itself with today's generation of "forever chemicals" – PFAS.
Like PCBs before them, PFAS are man-made chemicals that persist in the environment for generations. Some have been linked to serious health harms, including cancers, immune system damage, and developmental effects. They are already in rivers, drinking water, wildlife, and blood – yet they remain in everyday use.
The PCB scandal shows what happens when governments fail to act. Decades of delay left communities living with harmful pollution that still exists today. WCL says Britain must not make the same mistake with PFAS. The lesson could not be clearer: every year of delay in phasing them out allows more PFAS to enter our environment, water bodies, and food chain. The result is greater exposure and health risks – and an ever-growing burden passed on to future generations.
Michael Sheen, lead presenter in Buried, says: “The public will rightly be shocked by what has happened in Wales. The question now is: What are governments going to do about it? How are we going to hold those responsible to account? Doing nothing is not a neutral position. It is a decision – one that palms off the risk onto future generations rather than confronting it now.”
Richard Benwell, Chief Executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, says: “The PCB scandal should have been the moment Britain learned that once persistent chemicals are released into the environment, they are almost impossible to remove. Instead, we are sleepwalking into another environmental scandal. We've seen this story before. Dangerous persistent chemicals stay in use for years, are eventually banned, then replaced with others that are just as harmful. We need to break that cycle.”
Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor, the journalists behind Buried, says: “You’ve heard of climate change; you’ve heard of mass extinctions, but it’s time we all started talking about forever chemicals with equal gravity. This is a simmering disaster, and we are all collateral damage. Is Britain really doing enough?”
Dr Dave Megson, a forensic scientist from Manchester Metropolitan University, says: “As a scientist, I’ve been screaming about this for a decade or more, we have tried to engage with government, but it falls on deaf ears. It’s time we wake up to this crisis and start prosecuting polluters for the damage they cause.”
WCL is calling on the UK Government to act urgently as today's PFAS pollution is becoming tomorrow's toxic legacy. The group demands two urgent actions:
With the Clean Water Bill due later this year, WCL is calling on the Government to prevent further release of forever chemical pollution by banning the most harmful substances, including PFAS and harmful flame retardants. The Government must also make the polluters pay, ensuring the industries responsible for contamination fund the clean-up of polluted sites and water – not taxpayers or the communities left living with the consequences.
Hannah Evans, Project Manager at Fidra, says: “PFAS pollution threatens to scar our environment and public health for generations to come. But they also offer an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and take proactive steps to prevent further damage. PCBs have demonstrated the cost of waiting too long to act. Countries around the world are already moving to phase out PFAS, and the UK must catch up. These ‘forever chemicals’ do not have to be the legacy we leave behind. Instead, we can restrict the use of PFAS at source, champion safe and sustainable innovation, and put public and environmental health first.”
Dr Rob Collins, Director of Policy & Science at The Rivers Trust, says: “The contamination and toxicity arising from PCBs reflects a failure of policymakers to act upon rigorous scientific evidence and, sadly, we are at imminent risk of another late lesson from early warnings with regard to PFAS forever chemicals that are ubiquitous in our fresh and coastal waters. Government must act now to control PFAS at source to protect both environmental and human health and ensure that polluters pay for the already huge cost of remediation.”
Thalie Martini, CEO of Breast Cancer UK, says: “As the PCB scandal has already shown us, rigorous chemical regulations are crucial to ensuring we don’t leave UK communities unprotected. It is imperative that we are not exposed to chemicals which have not been proven safe, and yet the majority of PFAS have never even been tested for their effects on human health. This means that although there is already enough evidence linking PFAS to serious health issues to warrant a precautionary approach, we still don’t know the full repercussions of our continued exposure to PFAS, which may build up in our bodies to form chemical cocktails. The public must not be used as guinea pigs in a lifelong experiment; we must phase out PFAS immediately to prevent potential further damage to people and our planet.”
Dr Shubhi Sharma, Scientific Researcher at CHEM Trust, says: “Globally, and in the UK, we acted too late on the harm caused by the toxic and persistent chemicals, PCBs. These chemicals are now thought to be the reason why the UK's killer whale population will die out by the end of the century. We have to learn from our previous mistakes and ensure that we act now on PFAS; chemicals which we already know are incredibly persistent, with some linked to cancer and other health issues. The UK government must urgently take decisive and preventative action to regulate the entire group of PFAS chemicals, before even more irreversible harm is done.”
Clare Trotman, Head of Policy & Advocacy at the Marine Conservation Society, says: "We've seen the devastating legacy of PCBs in species like orcas, which are among the most contaminated marine mammals on earth. We cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes with PFAS by allowing another generation of 'forever chemicals' to build up in our seas and wildlife, and risk human health. Our research with the University of Portsmouth has already shown widespread PFAS throughout the marine food web. The UK Government must urgently commit to a universal restriction of PFAS, and UK governments must strengthen PFAS regulation and monitoring, to turn off the tap at source for good.”
Helen Lynn, Senior Consultant and Research fellow at Wen (Women’s Environmental Network), says: “Despite a decades old ban on PCBs, they are a prime example of regulatory closing of the barn door after the horse has bolted. Let loose in the environment; they continue to harm the health of communities, workers, wildlife, and the environment. PCBs have specific gendered impacts on women and females, linked to cancer, hormone disruption, reproduction effects, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Affecting not only current, but future generations. It seems humanity never learns, and so we perpetuate the issue with 'forever' chemicals like PFAS, found in everything from cookware to period products. We need urgent regulatory action on PFAS and dedicated funding for cleanup operations, polluters must pay.”
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