A group of residents in north Wales is urging public health authorities to conduct voluntary blood testing for those concerned about exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), following revelations from a BBC documentary about historical toxic waste dumping.
Natalie Dugdale, a mother of two young children, moved to an area near Llwyneinion lagoon outside Wrexham two years ago, believing it to be a safe environment. However, after watching Michael Sheen’s BBC series Buried, she learned the lagoon had been used as a dumping ground for cancer-causing PCBs by US chemical giant Monsanto, which previously operated factories in Wrexham and Newport.
“I was really upset because having young children, what are they being exposed to?” said Dugdale, 33. She is now part of a newly formed campaign group seeking answers alongside hundreds of other locals from villages including Cefn Mawr, Acrefair, and Trevor.
The documentary team discovered elevated PCB levels in soil samples from public areas near the fenced-off lagoon and at 13 other suspected dumpsites across Wales. Additionally, private testing commissioned for the programme found “very high” levels of the banned chemicals in the blood of Michael Phillips, a 63-year-old man who played near the lagoon as a child and later developed a rare shoulder cancer.
Phillips stated that many of his former playmates have since died from similar rare cancers, although no definitive causal link has been medically established. “I would say every person that played in the pool that was close to me, apart from one friend who had an operation to get rid of it, is dead,” Phillips said. “It’s got to stop.”
Other residents, such as Nel Byers from Trevor, argued that testing is essential for peace of mind and to establish whether communities show heightened levels on a national scale. “We need to be proactive now and voicing our concerns for future generations,” she said.
Despite these appeals, Public Health Wales (PHW) has stated it does not recommend blood testing for PCBs. In a statement issued on September 21, PHW argued that such tests do not provide a reliable means of assessing individual exposure or potential health impacts, noting that PCBs are ubiquitous in the environment, present in food, building materials, and homes.
Professor Sarah Jones, a consultant in environmental public health at PHW, explained that because there is no treatment for elevated PCB levels, testing could cause unnecessary anxiety without offering solutions. “All we could do is give people a number that we can’t really interpret and then we can’t make right,” she said. “There is nothing that blood testing can do that would magically take those worries away – it would only potentially magnify them.”
Campaigners and local representatives have criticized this stance. Steve Witherden, the Labour MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr and husband of campaigner Katie Witherden, described PHW’s response as “chilling.” Witherden expressed hope that the health authority would revise its position in light of the strong feelings within affected communities.
Katie Witherden emphasized that the goal is not treatment but knowledge. “We know they can’t treat PCBs and that’s not what we’re asking for,” she said. “It would give people answers about what they have or haven’t been exposed to – and I think all of us deserve the right to have the choice to know that.”
Dr. Dave Megson of Manchester Metropolitan University, who participated in the documentary’s testing, noted that the US and other European countries are already ahead of the UK in utilizing blood testing for chemical contamination assessment. He argued that advanced scientific analysis could yield significant information even if the tests are non-standard.
The Welsh government acknowledged the concerns, stating that addressing contaminated land is a key priority. A spokesperson confirmed plans to develop a Wales-wide strategy to restore post-industrial land, strengthening the “polluter pays” principle and seeking additional funding from the UK Treasury.
Monsanto no longer exists as an independent entity, and Eastman Chemical Company, which manages the legacy production in the UK, has not yet responded to requests for comment from BBC Wales.
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