For decades, residents of Thornton-Cleveleys lived beside the AGC Chemicals Europe factory, grew vegetables in its shadow, and fed their children eggs from backyard ducks. Last week, blood test results from 49 individuals confirmed what contaminated produce had already suggested: the PFAS chemicals emitted from the factory until 2012 are now inside them. The numbers are stark. Seventy percent of those tested exceeded the US threshold of 20 ng/ml — the level at which American clinicians are advised to begin targeted health screening. One resident registered 436 ng/ml, more than 21 times that threshold. Sam Hammond, whose duck eggs exceeded European safe consumption levels tenfold, has a blood level of 25 ng/ml. Her son's is 111 ng/ml. The family had been eating those eggs daily for decades. The contaminant in question is PFOA, a Group 1 carcinogen globally banned in 2020. AGC Chemicals emitted it in large quantities until 2012 from its Hillhouse site, which has hosted industrial chemical manufacturing for over a century. A government-commissioned cancer study found "higher-than-expected" kidney cancer rates in two areas near the factory but concluded no further investigation was warranted, citing small sample size and possible random variation. Dr. Dave Megson of Manchester Metropolitan University called that conclusion "very contradictory" and warned the data provides "strong evidence that significant harm has already been caused." The structural failure here is not contamination alone — industrial pollution happens. It is the total absence of institutional infrastructure to respond. The UK has no guidance on safe PFAS blood levels, no NHS biomonitoring pathway, and no clinical protocol for residents who discover they are contaminated. Wyre borough council's advice amounts to washing vegetables and not eating local eggs. Two allotments near the factory will be shut down. That is the extent of the institutional response to date. AGC Chemicals' statement is a case study in corporate deflection. The company notes the UK government's position that PFAS blood testing "does not predict future health problems and can sometimes create unnecessary concern" — effectively using regulatory inaction as a shield. It emphasizes the site's century-long industrial history and the absence of a formal Part 2A contamination determination, while the multi-agency investigation remains ongoing. The factory itself has announced planned closure. The blood testing was organized not by the state but by law firm Leigh Day, working with Megson and Watershed Investigations. This is the pattern: private litigation filling the vacuum left by public health systems that decline to act. Residents are left with results they cannot interpret through any official channel, contamination they cannot remove from their bodies, and a factory that may close before accountability is established. Megson is calling on central government to provide widespread biomonitoring — the standard response, he notes, in comparable chemical pollution events globally. The government has been contacted for comment. As of publication, residents of Thornton-Cleveleys have blood test numbers, a closing factory, and no institutional pathway forward.
