Rachel Salvidge Webster

Jan 15, 2025 | theguardian.com | Rachel Salvidge |Leana Hosea |Rachel Salvidge Webster

The multibillion-dollar chemicals company 3M told customers its firefighting foams were harmless and biodegradable when it knew they contained toxic substances so persistent they are now known as “forever chemicals” and banned in many countries including the UK, newly uncovered documents show.

Jan 14, 2025 | theguardian.com | Rachel Salvidge |Leana Hosea |Rachel Salvidge Webster

Efforts to restrict the production of plastic “forever chemicals” that could threaten public health have been met with a large-scale coordinated attack by the multibillion pound industries that make and use them.

Nov 4, 2024 | theguardian.com | Rachel Salvidge |Rachel Salvidge Webster

Processes intended to decontaminate noxious liquid landfill waste before it enters rivers and sewers have been found to increase the levels of some of the worst toxic chemicals, a study has shown. Landfills are well known to be a main source of PFAS forever chemicals – or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – but the new study shows that the treatment plants designed to clean up the liquid waste can instead boost the levels of banned PFAS such as PFOA and PFOS, in some cases by as much as 1,335%.

Oct 15, 2024 | theguardian.com | Rachel Salvidge |Leana Hosea |Rachel Salvidge Webster

The number of sites identified as potentially having been polluted with banned cancer-causing “forever chemicals” in England is on the rise, and the Environment Agency (EA) says it does not have the budget to deal with them. A former RAF airfield in Cambridgeshire and a fire service college in the Cotswolds have joined a chemicals plant in Lancashire and a fire protection equipment supplier in North Yorkshire on the agency’s list of “problem sites” for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Sep 23, 2024 | theguardian.com | Rachel Salvidge |Leana Hosea |Rachel Salvidge Webster

People living near a chemicals plant in Lancashire have been told to wash and peel vegetables from their gardens before eating them, while an investigation into potential contamination of soil in the area with a banned toxic chemical gets under way. The chemical PFOA, one of the PFAS family of about 15,000 chemicals, does not break down in the environment and last year was categorised as a human carcinogen by the World Health Organization.