‘Chronic threat’ of PFAS firefighting foams raised in 2003 secret UK report

The Fire Brigades Union said the lack of regulation around forever chemicals in firefighting foams was a ‘national scandal’. Photograph: James Weech/PA

The Environment Agency was warned about the “chronic threat” that firefighting foams containing PFAS “forever chemicals” pose to the environment in 2003, 20 years before it started the process of regulating the chemicals, it can be revealed.

In a 200-page report obtained by the Ends Report via a freedom of information request and shared with the Guardian, consultants commissioned by the Environment Agency conducted an environmental review of firefighting foams with a “particular emphasis on their fluorosurfactant content”.