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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Daniel Shailer on Fair Isle

It has the highest levels of toxic Pfas in drinking water in Scotland. But how did this remote island become awash with forever chemicals?

A seal's head emerges through white foamy water and sea spray
A seal emerges from the seafoam in the waters around Fair Isle. Photograph: Daniel Shailer

When the wind picks up on Fair Isle, Britain’s most remote inhabited island, puffs of seafoam start to drift across fields like tumbleweed. The pale yellow blobs are ubiquitous enough to hold their own place in the island’s mythology: known as the butter churned by a local troll, Lukki Minni.

“When the Atlantic gets going, foam covers the whole island,” says Tommy Hyndman, an artist who moved to the Fair Isle from upstate New York two decades ago. “Your windows get caked and your plants all die from the salt.”

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