Blood tests reveal high concentrations of toxic PFAS in North Yorkshire town residents

Residents of a quiet North Yorkshire market town are confronting a hidden legacy in their bodies, linked to what is believed to be the worst pollution of its kind ever recorded in the UK. In Bentham, a community living in the shadow of a firefighting foam factory, blood tests have revealed extraordinary levels of persistent industrial chemicals, with one former worker recording a concentration over 200 times a key international health risk threshold.

A Personal Search for Answers

For 34-year-old Stephen Illston, the discovery of elevated per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in his blood provided a painful explanation for years of distress. With a PFAS level measured at 55 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml), Mr Illston has struggled with infertility, a condition he says led to poor mental health and a period of questioning his “usefulness on the earth”. “It’s good to hear it’s not me, maybe it’s the PFAS that’s caused it,” he said. His experience aligns with a growing body of research linking PFAS, often called “forever chemicals” for their extreme persistence, to reproductive health problems including lower sperm count.

The tests, conducted for an ITV documentary produced with Ends Report, showed nearly a quarter of the 39 people tested in Bentham fell into a high-risk category. The highest level found was a staggering 405 ng/ml in a former worker at the local Angus Fire factory, which produced PFAS-containing firefighting foam from 1974 until earlier this year.

The Scale of Contamination: “Exceptionally High”

There are no UK guidelines defining safe levels of PFAS in blood, leaving experts to turn to international benchmarks. In the United States, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) states that potential adverse health effects may occur if the sum of seven PFAS chemicals exceeds 2 ng/ml. A level above 20 ng/ml indicates an increased risk, warranting more frequent health screenings.

The Bentham results left forensic environmental scientist Dr David Megson “absolutely shocked”. Comparing the data to background levels in the US population, he found them “exceptionally high”. “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’d ever expect to see,” he said. The environmental charity Chem Trust described the levels as “alarming”, noting the chemicals’ links to serious health outcomes including certain cancers, thyroid disease, and immune system suppression.

Angus Fire, however, challenged this characterisation. A spokesperson said there was “no accepted way of interpreting blood tests for Pfas internationally” and that it was “unfounded to classify the blood data as ‘unusually high’ in the UK context”. They added that raised PFAS levels were “neither an indicator of health, nor of the way in which Pfas has been absorbed”.

From Factory to Community: Pathways of Exposure

The source of the contamination is not in dispute. An investigation published in May 2024 revealed groundwater at the Angus Fire site was contaminated with the highest level of PFAS ever recorded in the UK, with one 2008 sample showing 1,199,000 ng/l. The pollution is linked to historical run-off from decades of testing PFAS foams, with wastewater directed into lagoons near homes.

Critically, exposure appears not to have been confined to factory employees. Epidemiologist Dr Tony Fletcher, a world-leading PFAS expert, noted that high levels in people who never worked at the plant suggested “they were getting exposed in the community”. An internal Environment Agency report from 2024 points to a likely culprit: airborne emissions. It states that “aerial dispersal” from foam testing could expose residents through “consumption of allotment produce and produce grown within private gardens”, assessing the probability as “likely”.

Resident Lindsay Young, who has a PFAS level of 30 ng/ml, described regular test fires. “The siren goes off and then you know the smoke is coming… It’s huge billowing gusts of black smoke. You don’t know what’s in it,” she said. Soil samples in nearby communal gardens have shown elevated PFAS, leading to advice for residents to wash and peel home-grown produce.

Angus Fire said the risk in the EA report was “overstated” and that it carried out tests responsibly to ensure products were “fit for purpose”. The firm said it stopped testing PFAS foams in Bentham in 2022. Regulation of the test fires fell into a grey area: the Environment Agency said they were not covered by the site’s permit, while North Yorkshire Council said they were exempt from the Clean Air Act due to the company’s firefighting connection.

Regulatory Gaps and Legal Reckoning

The situation in Bentham highlights significant regulatory shortcomings. The UK only published its first comprehensive PFAS Plan in February 2026, outlining a strategy to understand sources and reduce exposure. The government intends to align UK REACH chemical regulations with stricter EU standards by December 2028 to enable better PFAS controls, and a restriction on PFAS in firefighting foams is under consultation.

Angus Fire’s own environmental record shows repeated breaches, with its permit reportedly breached 20 times in the past decade. In 2023, the Environment Agency warned the company its permit could be suspended over unpermitted PFAS discharges. The firm has now applied for a permit variation to install an effluent treatment plant to reduce PFAS in rainwater on its site before discharge into the River Wenning. It has also offered financial “goodwill gestures” to some residents.

Meanwhile, a potential legal reckoning looms. Residents have instructed law firm Leigh Day to investigate a claim against Angus Fire, which could become the first PFAS-related lawsuit in the UK, mirroring multi-billion dollar settlements seen in the US. The company maintains that former operations are “not the sole source of PFAS in the Bentham area” and that it has “always followed guidelines as set out by the UK regulatory and health authorities”.

Living with the Legacy

For those with elevated levels, the question turns to what can be done. Dr Fletcher, who advises the Jersey government on its own PFAS crisis from airport firefighting foam, suggests a potential medical intervention. A scientific panel in Jersey advised that for individuals with levels over 20 ng/ml, clinicians could consider prescribing colesevelam, a cholesterol drug shown in studies to accelerate the elimination of PFAS from the body. Dr Fletcher said affected people in Bentham could discuss this option with a physician.

North Yorkshire Council, which has found no PFAS in private water supplies it tested near the factory, stated it currently has no evidence of direct health impacts on the wider population. However, for residents like Stephen Illston, the impact is already profoundly personal. The full story of the “forever chemicals” scandal in Bentham will be detailed in the ITV documentary *In Our Blood: The Forever Chemicals Scandal*, broadcast on Sunday 22 March.