According to a pollution map released today by Watershed Investigations, the multiple pressures put upon British rivers, lakes, groundwater and seas have been exposed. Landfill sites, contaminated land waste, quarries and other possible sources of contamination, such as agricultural sources, are identified and plotted.
Various PFAS chemicals, or ‘forever chemicals’ as they are also known, have been found in sediment, groundwater and in marine life. PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid) chemicals have been recorded in multiple locations, both across Yorkshire and the rest of Britain. From the Nafferton Beck, near Driffield, to the river Ouse as it approaches York, to the River Ure near Boroughbridge, evidence of PFOS chemicals have been found. Other PFAS chemicals, such as PFOA (Perfluorooctanoate anion), has also been registered in samples of fish from Yorkshire’s rivers and tributaries.
PFAS chemicals have been linked to a wide range of significant illnesses, including a range of cancers. Avoiding them completely can be difficult, as the list of consumer items which contain PFAS is a large one, including, but by no means not limited to, food packaging, clothing, carpets and furniture.
Growing awareness of ‘forever chemicals’
Awareness of prevalent, toxic ‘forever chemicals’ is finally growing in the UK, helped in part through high profile campaigners. In the new BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Buried: The Last Witness’, the actor Michael Sheen, along with two journalists, uncovers the story of a whistleblower, Douglas Gowan, who attempted to raise awareness of environmental pollution. The scale of the impact and pollution from forever chemicals is still to be fully detailed however, with this mapping information from Watershed Investigations being a crucial part of the process.
Professor of environmental science at York University, Alistair Boxall, praised the mapping data, saying that this was “a very useful resource as a one stop shop on water quality data”. He felt that the mapping was a “great start” and one that other scientists could follow up in terms of communicating the risks to a wider audience:
“At the moment, I think a non-expert would struggle to interpret a lot of the data. As a community, I think people like myself need to do a better job of communicating data on water quality in terms that the lay person can understand. This is therefore a great start and I am sure it will develop over time.”
An industry at risk?
Earlier this month, the Fire Brigades Union began testing thousands of its members to better understand the level of contamination in their blood that they have been exposed to. Over the last few days, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as the agency for UK REACH, completed a consultation period also aimed to gather more information on the dangers posed to the firefighting industry.
Forever chemicals can be absorbed through human skin
A study of 17 commonly used synthetic ‘forever chemicals’ published last month has shown that these toxic substances can readily be absorbed through human skin. Lead author of the study, Dr Oddný Ragnarsdóttir, carried out the research while studying for her PhD at the University of Birmingham. She explained that the ability of these chemicals to be absorbed through skin has previously been dismissed because the molecules are ionised. The electrical charge that gives them the ability to repel water and stains was thought to also make them incapable of crossing the skin membrane:
“Our research shows that this theory does not always hold true and that, in fact, uptake through the skin could be a significant source of exposure to these harmful chemicals.”
If this recent research holds up to scrutiny, children playing in rivers might become a thing of the past, as exposure to persistent chemicals can happen through the skin and they would not need to be ingested.
Our rivers, canals, waterways and seas may soon be more than ecologically ‘dead’ – they may well become areas to be avoided, for fear of illness.
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