“Everything I wanted was finally coming to fruition. A house, a change of job and getting married,” says Liz Hurst, looking out to sea on a hot evening in Blackpool.
“But then all of a sudden, everything was put on hold.” Fifteen years ago, Hurst was diagnosed with kidney cancer aged 32.
“The doctors told me they didn’t know why I’d got it, they said it was very uncommon for somebody of my age and sex,” she says.
Last month, a government commissioned study 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.
Between the 1950s and 2012, the facility emitted an estimated 49 tonnes of the carcinogenic chemical Pfoa.
Pfoa – perfluorooctanoic acid – is a type of Pfas that international research has linked 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 – polytetrafluoroethylene – another type of forever chemical used to make non-stick coatings. Pfoa was banned globally in 2020.
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’s cancer was caused by their exposure to Pfoa. But world-leading experts have described the study’s findings as a “major source of concern” and believe further investigation, including blood testing, is necessary.
Hurst says AGC Chemicals Europe played an outsized role in her life growing up. She says she remembers regular “cloud burst drills” at her primary school to prepare in the event of a chemical spill. She also spent several summers working in the factory’s labs as a young science student. “It was just always there,” she says.
A spokesperson for AGC Chemicals Europe says that as far as it could establish, the company was not involved in the drills.
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 was recorded, residents were advised not to eat eggs laid within 1km of the factory and to wash and peel homegrown fruit and vegetables.
“I saw an article in the local paper about the contamination and so I started looking into it,” Hurst says. “I 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.”
Hurst has been cancer free since 2019 after having her left kidney removed.
As regulators decide what to do next and scientists analyse the data, life for those living in the shadow of the factory continues.
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.
“It just gets me out for a few hours,” Hodson says. “I just have a potter around, leave my problems outside and then when I go home, my mind’s cleared, the brain fog has lifted.”
The factory’s 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.
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 “safe level” for Pfoa in soil or food in the UK. But one soil sample from the allotment was seven times Belgium’s guideline level for Pfoa in soil.
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.
Hodson has spent the past few weeks clearing his plot. “The strawberries in there, the birds have had them,” he says, pointing to a raised bed he built when he first found out about the contamination. “There’s stuff I’ve spent money on, things I’ve grown from seedlings that I’ve just thrown away.”
“It’s like I’ve got a lead pair of wellies on,” he says. “I’ve not been sleeping. I just think of all that time I spent here – I could’ve been doing something else. It’s just wasted time. I just want another plot.”
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.
The level of Pfoa in one of Hammond’s duck’s eggs was found to be so high that if she ate just one egg a week her exposure to Pfas would exceed the European safe weekly level by 10 times. Hammond and her children have been eating these eggs every day for years.
While the allotment faces imminent closure, Hammond still has not been told what the test results mean for her or her home.
“I just think it’s disgusting that we’ve been left in limbo like this,” she says. “I’ve increased my mental health medication. It’s just stressful. It’s in my brain when I get up, when I go to bed, when I’m trying to sleep, there’s no escape from it.”
Wyre council said all agencies involved in investigations are committed to transparency and the EA plans to contact residents once formal conclusions are reached.
A spokesperson added: “We are working closely with our partner agencies to ensure the process moves forward as quickly as possible.
“This is a complex investigation, both from a scientific perspective and in terms of the legal process that must be followed. It is therefore critical that the appropriate time is taken to ensure any decisions made are robust, evidence-based and unchallengeable.”
In the US, the Pfas contamination crisis has been rumbling on for years, with class-action lawsuits already resulting in billion-dollar settlements.
While Europe has yet to see legal action on that scale, that could be about to change. On 8 July, lawyers at the environmental law NGO ClientEarth filed a complaint to the European Committee of Social Rights over the Belgian government’s failure to protect people from widespread Pfas pollution.
In Thornton-Cleveleys, the law firm Leigh Day has written to AGC Chemicals Europe to say it is investigating the viability of a claim on behalf of Hammond, associated with the “loss of enjoyment and usage” of her land and potential personal injuries. More than 90 residents have indicated they are keen to be involved in any potential legal action, with 50 accessing blood tests over the summer.
Hurst says: “I want as many people around the area to know about it, so that they can get the healthcare that they need. I’m just angry.”
A spokesperson for AGC Chemicals Europe said: “We take our responsibilities to our employees, our local community and the environment very seriously. While it would not be appropriate to comment on individual cases or allegations, the multi-agency Health Cell report concluded that there was no evidence of a statistically significant kidney cancer cluster, no clustering of cases close to the current AGC Chemicals Europe Ltd site, and no indication of a link to environmental levels.
“In addition, as far as we have been able to establish, the ‘cloudburst drills’ referred to did not involve AGC Chemicals Europe Ltd.”