Those who keep chickens and ducks in their gardens understand the value in their hard work: the supply of wholesome eggs landing on their doorstep. These really are ‘happy’ chickens; and the free-range, shop-bought eggs claiming as much have nothing on these eggs, either (and my word… the omelettes!).
Sam Hammond is one such garden egg evangelist. So imagine the horror when a letter from the local council arrived through the letterbox, explaining that the eggs she and her children have been enjoying for a decade and a half may be poisonous due to the presence of PFAS, or so-called ‘forever chemicals’.
“I am angry and worried. I feel quite sick by it,” said Hammond in an interview with ENDS Report, a website dedicated to environmental policy and regulation, last week. “My daughter is 16 now – she was two when we got the chickens. We should be offered blood tests to see how much [PFAS] is in our bodies. There needs to be a more thorough investigation into what poisons are in my own backyard,” she added.
It is a fair point. But scratch beneath the surface and the problems of ‘poisons’ in Hammond’s and her neighbours’ gardens point to a far wider challenge for our food production, not to mention a risk to our health.
A fowl find
Hammond is one of a number of residents who live on the boundary of the AGC Chemicals factory, in Lancashire, which is currently the subject of a contaminated land investigation by the Environment Agency and Wyre Council under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act.
The aim is to establish whether the historic air deposition of PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) – a Class One carcinogenic chemical within the PFAS group (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) – from part of the former Imperial Chemical Industries site, now operated by AGC Chemicals Europe Ltd, within the Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone, has led to contamination of the surrounding soil.
As part of the investigation, the council conducted testing for PFAS in eggs from chickens and ducks that are reared on land surrounding the factory. The result? “Eggs produced within 1km of the Hillhouse Site should not be consumed and poultry kept for egg-laying within this area should not enter the food chain,” the council explained.
The local council (as part of a live investigation being followed closely by The ENDS Report) tested three of Hammond’s eggs for four different PFAS chemicals. One of the eggs contained 46ug/kg of PFOA, PFOS, PFNA and PFHxS.
Under the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) guidelines, the tolerable weekly intake is 0.0044 ug/kg of body weight per week for the sum of these four PFAS. This means for a person weighing 60kg, they should not consume more than 0.264ug of these four PFAS collectively per week. That egg had 173 times that amount.
“Those values look very concerning, they are much higher than we would expect from just your average egg sample,” said David Megson, reader in chemistry and environmental forensics at The Manchester Metropolitan University.“ Just eating one egg would give an adult more than their tolerable weekly dose, [and] this risk is even greater for children who are smaller than adults so can’t dilute this PFAS load across their body to the same extent.”
People who own poultry normally consume much more than just one egg a week, which further increases the risk, Megson added.
This news shows the #PFAS problem has really come home to roost. Because these chemicals are everywhere and are impossible to avoid.
“The evidence is more than conclusive – PFAS [are] a serious and enduring threat to our environment and health,” explained Lindsey Hendricks-Franco, fellow at the Ecologic Institut, based in Berlin, when I posted about the news on social media. “Continuing [to bend] to the short-term bottom line of the pesticide, packaging and cookware industries is unconscionable.”
Forever a problem
PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of 10,000 industrial chemicals used in everyday items like cookware, grease-resistant food packaging, and waterproof clothing.
Some of its uses will be hard to swallow – including for Wicked Leeks readers who are trying to ‘do the right’ thing. Repeated studies, for example, have found high levels of harmful and persistent chemicals, PFAS, in moulded fibre compostable food packaging – the type that has rapidly been replacing fossil-fuel-based plastic across our high-streets.
“As we strive to reduce our reliance on single-use plastic, are we simply swapping a visible pollutant for a longer-lasting, more toxic chemical alternative?” warned Fidra, an environmental charity based in North Berwick, Scotland.
Based just a few hundred feet away from where I sit in a coffee shop writing this, Fidra is one of a long line of groups that has been sounding the alarm over PFAS for years.
In 2020, for example, the charity identified packaging containing significant levels of PFAS in 8 of the 9 major UK supermarkets tested, and 100% of takeaways. PFAS were found in 95% of the samples sent for TOrF testing (Total Organic Fluorine (TOrF or TOF)) which serves as a comprehensive screening method for PFAS contamination in products, materials, and textiles – and of those, 90% were considered to be above the level expected from background contamination.
“We therefore conclude that the use of PFAS in UK food packaging is widespread, across retailers and across product types,” said Fidra at the time.
Indeed, PFAS was identified in supermarket cookie bags and bakery bags, microwave popcorn packaging, pizza boxes, takeaway bags, and moulded fibre takeaway boxes (though not in greaseproof paper). The brands using these PFAS-contaminated packets included major supermarkets as well as takeaway chains including Caffè Nero, Costa, Greggs, Pret a Manger, Starbucks and Dominos, plus an independent café, chip shop, pizza outlet and a workplace cafeteria.
Dark waters and doubt
The publication of that report coincided with the release of the film Dark Waters, starring Mark Ruffalo, which tells the story of how chemical giant DuPont was found to have knowingly poisoned an entire community for decades with PFAS.
To suggest this has happened here in the UK too would, at this stage, be premature. But the links between these chemicals and our food production – from field to plate – are becoming impossible to ignore.
“Forever chemicals are in the headlines a lot these days, which is really encouraging as it is forcing politicians to look at them,” Megan Kirton, senior project officer at Fidra, tells me. However, I think the message that ‘they are in our food’ is a bit of a missing link,” she adds.
On social media, following my recent posts, there have been knowing nods to those problem eggs in Northern England. Ana Frelih Larsen, member of the agriculture minister’s cabinet in Slovenia wrote: “[…] this is certainly a problem in our country, at least in certain areas.”
Dorota Napierska, who works on the ‘toxic-free circular economy’ project with Zero Waste Europe, an NGO, said the findings “should not be a surprise to those who follow the situation in Europe”.
Napierska, who I often consult on topics involving the plethora of chemicals used in packaging, told me that “in Belgium, we have a number of places where the authorities introduced so-called ‘no-regret’ measures. Depending on the place, they can include ‘not eating home-grown vegetables or fruit’, ‘not eating eggs from your own chickens’. ‘Not allowing children to play on unpaved areas on site’, and many others.”
Pesticides can also contain PFAS, with the chemicals intentionally added to pesticide products as ‘co-formulants’ to help with pesticide application, acting as propellants in aerosols, reducing uneven spraying, and facilitating greater penetration into target species.
No pesticides approved for use by organic farmers contain PFAS, says a spokeswoman from the Soil Association. However, they are widely used by many non-organic farmers.
Fidra research showed that PFAS pesticides are used across all agricultural crop sectors in the UK. In 2022, for example, PFAS pesticides were sprayed on the equivalent of more than 10.6 million hectares of arable crops; and the six PFAS pesticides that were included on the arable sector’s most used pesticides list have significantly increased in use between 2020 and 2022.
These pesticides present a direct route for PFAS into the environment, threatening soil health and productivity, the charity has long warned. The chemicals are known to alter soil microbial communities and reduce the biodiversity and connectivity of soil bacteria, all of which can impact crop yields.
Further research carried out by the Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK) discovered that 31 active substances currently approved for use as pesticides in the UK can be classified as PFAS chemicals. Of those 31 substances, 25 are used in pesticide products that are currently being applied to agricultural land in the UK.
“Given there are only 25 PFAS active substances that are currently in use, phasing them out should not be problematic as viable alternatives are already available to farmers and growers,” PAN UK wrote in its evidence to the live inquiry into the risks of PFAS being run by MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC).
PFAS and politics
Last week, the EAC began holding its evidence sessions with experts and politicians, including the water minister Emma Hardy. Next week we will have more details of what came of these in a further piece about regulation and restrictions of PFAS.
From those I have spoken to so far, the minister seemed to be making positive noises about these persistent pollutants, and the UK ‘catching up’ with the EU.
“Providing clarity on PFAS with bans for consumer uses is a top priority for both citizens and businesses,” said Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, this month as she published research showing that if the current levels of PFAS pollution in Europe continue until 2050 without regulatory action, the cost will reach approximately €440 billion during that period.
Roswall added: “Since PFAS remain in human bodies and the environment for decades, even after emissions have ceased, early action is vital to reduce long-term health and environmental costs. Consumers are concerned, and rightly so.”
PFAS can and do end up in our food. In an analysis of official data from the UK Government’s Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food (PRiF), PAN UK found 10 different PFAS pesticides were present in spices and a range of fruit and vegetables including grapes, cherries, spinach and tomatoes. Strawberries were found to be the worst offenders, with 95% of the 120 samples tested by the government in 2022 containing PFAS pesticides.
“This is of great concern as little is known about the short and long-term health impacts related to dietary exposure to PFAS chemicals,” PAN UK explained.
The UK Government’s response has been to publish a PFAS Plan. PFAS “represent one of the most pressing chemical challenges of our time”, Hardy said this month as she announced the proposals. “We will strengthen understanding and awareness, tackle the sources of PFAS and how they move through the environment, and reduce ongoing exposure to the PFAS that are already out there.”
Next week, we will unpick this plan to determine whether it will add up to the safer environment the government has promised. “We already know these chemicals are so prevalent, pernicious and problematic,” says Kirton, so the first, and most obvious, move is to “turn off the tap”.
That would certainly align with the precautionary principle for environmental regulation. “We appreciate that this news may be worrying and thank you for your cooperation,” the council said in its letter to Hammond. “The advice […] is precautionary and may be reviewed as more evidence becomes available.”
Hammond and her eggs have exposed what campaigners and scientists have known for years, but is the government now prepared to listen and act?
Read Part Two of David Burrows’ report, here at Wicked Leeks, next week.
I was horrified to find that non-stick cookware uses PFAS, which is inert if not used at high temperatures and not damaged. However, as soon as it is scratched or flakes, the PFAS leaches into your food. I am replacing my non-stick pans with stainless steel.