‘Chronic threat’ from PFAS firefighting foams in secret 2003 UK report | PFAS

The Environment Agency was warned about the “chronic threat” that fire-fighting foam containing PFAS “perennial chemicals” poses to the environment as far back as 2003, 20 years before it began regulating the chemicals, it has emerged.

In a 200-page report obtained by the Ends Report through a Freedom of Information Act request and shared with the Guardian, consultants commissioned by the Environment Agency carried out an environmental impact assessment on fire-fighting foams with “particular emphasis on fluorosurfactant content”.

Fluorosurfactants are a type of PFAS – a group of about 10,000 chemicals linked to a wide range of serious diseases, including certain cancers. They are now known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment.

The report, which has never been made public, was intended to inform the Environment Agency’s policy ‘to minimise environmental damage caused by the use of fire-fighting foam’.

The introduction to the report states: “When fire-fighting foam enters the environment, whether through emergencies, exercises or accidental spills, it can have a negative impact on local environmental conditions and the organisms present.”

More than 20 years later, firefighters in the UK are only just beginning to realise that they have been exposed to these toxic chemicals for decades. Residents in a town that is home to a major manufacturer of the foams are questioning why the Environment Agency failed to warn them about the long-term health and environmental effects of the chemicals.

Globally, the net is tightening around PFAS. The US recently introduced strict limits on six PFAS chemicals commonly found in drinking water, and the EU plans to restrict the use of around 10,000 PFAS. However, in England and Wales, there are no specific standards for PFAS in drinking water regulations, and in the UK only two types of PFAS – PFOS and PFOA – are regulated. The Health and Safety Executive launched a consultation on plans to restrict the use of PFAS in fire-fighting foams in April this year.

After reviewing the product information sheets of the three fire-fighting foam manufacturers based in the UK at the time – including Angus Fire, whose factory is in Bentham, North Yorkshire, the most PFAS-polluted site in the UK – the report’s authors concluded that a number of ingredients in the foam were “toxic, persistent and potentially bioaccumulative”.

Therefore, they said, there “appears to be a discrepancy” between the overall low toxicity and biodegradability of the end product and the persistence of the foam ingredients.

The report goes on to explain that this is likely because these chemicals are present in low concentrations. However, the authors wrote that if these “minor constituents persist and/or bioaccumulate … they could have a long-lasting impact on the environment even after firefighting operations have ceased.”

They added: “Under such circumstances, the components of foam may pose a chronic threat to aquatic organisms.”

Responding to the report, Dr Shubhi Sharma of the charity Chem Trust said: “It is shocking to learn that the Environment Agency was advised over 20 years ago about the toxicity and persistence of PFAS-based firefighting foams, which have been linked to cancer cases in firefighters. This PFAS pollution scandal is the result of inaction and regulatory failure.”

In the report, the authors acknowledged that in emergency firefighting situations, where the primary objective was to save lives and property, the environmental impacts of the foams were “clearly a secondary concern.” However, they stated that “when firefighting foams are used for training purposes, their environmental impacts should be a higher priority.”

Sean Comber, one of the original authors of the report, said that a number of years after the report was completed, the Environment Agency announced some kind of environmental and health limit for the concentration of PFOS. He said he “suspects” that the 2003 report helped to prioritize the agency’s decision to create this quality standard for PFOS.

Riccardo la Torre, national official at the fire brigades’ union, said the lack of regulation on permanent chemicals in fire-fighting foam was a “national scandal”.

He said: “For decades this danger has been swept under the carpet, despite its known presence in firefighting foam. Due to neglect by successive governments and employers, firefighters have been exposed to these chemicals for far too long.”

La Torre said the fact that calls for research into firefighting foam and warnings about the dangers of PFAS were “ignored” in 2003 was “a missed opportunity to protect the environment and save lives.” “The government and fire employers must take action to prevent further exposure to PFAS and provide health monitoring for all firefighters,” he said.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We continue to develop our scientific understanding of PFAS, and our evidence and expert advice has shaped government policy in this area since the 2000s. Working with the Health and Safety Executive, we are developing a wider restriction on the use of PFAS in fire-fighting foams through (the chemicals regulator) UK Reach.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Britain’s nature is in crisis, which is why we wasted no time in announcing a rapid review to meet our legally binding environmental targets and better protect our natural environment. This includes how best to manage the risks from PFAS. We have also already announced plans to restrict firefighting foam and will share more details in due course.”

Angus Fire has not breached any regulations regarding the PFAS it has produced or tested at its Bentham site, and it stopped testing PFAS foams there in 2022. A spokesperson for the company said: “It should be noted that the understanding and regulation of PFAS chemicals has evolved over time and Angus has always strived to fully comply with its legal obligations. Angus Fire customers have been able to purchase training foam to train their firefighters that does not contain PFAS chemicals.”