Lancashire chemicals factory facing potential legal claim announces closure

AGC Chemicals Europe says closure is due to ‘significant financial and operational challenges’. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian View image in fullscreen AGC Chemicals Europe says closure is due to ‘significant financial and operational challenges’. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian Lancashire chemicals factory facing potential legal claim announces closure More than 90 residents have expressed interest in contamination claim against AGC Chemicals Europe A Pfas factory in Lancashire has announced plans to close down, just days after the Guardian revealed that more than 90 residents have signed up to be involved in a potential legal claim over contamination of the local area. AGC Chemicals Europe Ltd is consulting with employees and their union representatives about plans to cease operations at its manufacturing plant in Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire . The consultation is expected to last for at least 45 days. The firm said no final decision has been made but all 190 employees and 18 agency staff will be affected. The company said in a statement that the proposal has been made because the site has experienced “significant financial and operational challenges, generating a loss for the past four years”. AGC Chemicals Europe is at the centre of an ongoing investigation in relation to its historic emissions of Pfoa. Pfoa – perfluorooctanoic acid – is a type of Pfas that international research has linked to kidney cancer. Pfas, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are commonly known as forever chemicals because they do not break down in the environment. The Thornton-Cleveleys factory, which AGC Chemicals Europe bought in 1999, used Pfoa to make PTFE – polytetrafluoroethylene – another type of forever chemical used to make non-stick coatings. Pfoa was banned globally in 2020. Between the 1950s and 2012, the facility emitted an estimated 49 tonnes of the carcinogenic chemical Pfoa. As part of their investigations, the Environment Agency and the local council tested soil and local produce for Pfoa. After widespread soil contamination was recorded, residents have been advised to wash and peel homegrown food and to avoid eating locally produced eggs. Two allotment sites within the vicinity of the factory have also been shut down. Last month, a government-commissioned study found there were higher-than-expected rates of kidney cancer in the vicinity of the plant. Despite the higher rates, the study found no evidence of a cancer cluster or any environmental association, but world-leading experts described the findings as a “major source of concern” and believe further investigation, including blood testing, is necessary. Internal documents obtained by the Ends Report previously revealed that AGC Chemicals Europe funded testing of Pfoa on monkeys in the late 1990s. Several of the monkeys involved in the study died and every single monkey experienced an increase in liver weight, a sign of toxicity. View image in fullscreen Res