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Toxic waste sites exposed in Michael Sheen documentary 'tip of the iceberg'
Developing
Michael Sheen took up the job of investigating Douglas Gowan's concerns about an international chemical giant dumping carcinogenic waste in Wales A former Monsanto worker who spent three years helping seal toxic waste underground said staff had "cheap" protective equipment and were not told what they were burying.
Stephen Constance says he does not feel safe now he knows what chemicals he was exposed to In the documentary, journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor reveal a memo from Monsanto dated to 1972 which found that it knew PCBs were a danger to human health and was closing its site in the US as a result of legal action from a town.
But the 14 sites identified in the programme are just the tip of the iceberg and there are about 20,000 high-concern sites in the UK, said Dr David Megson, the scientist involved in the documentary. PCB material was covered over with plastic membrane and liquid clay When asked if he felt safe, he said: "In terms of what we knew was there and what we were potentially exposed to, no.
Looking back, he said it was "quite evident that nobody was fully appraised of the potential hazard that they were exposed to". The data he found stunned him after having met people who had been worried about PCB levels near their family home for more than 30 years, saying he found levels that were "pretty much the highest I've ever seen in anything we've tested".
Ralph Davies, who has been in the chemical remediation industry for about 35 years, said he proposed a way of cleaning up the acid tar lake in Llwyneinion near Ruabon in 2007, but never heard back from Wrexham council. Among the known contaminants dumped at the site is 93,100 tonnes of acid sludge from Burmah Castrol and barrels of unknown substances suspected to be from Monsanto, the report said.
Douglas Gowan spent 50 years trying to make people listen to his concerns about chemical contamination in Wales Constance, 61, said working for Monsanto was "absolutely dreadful". "The government in the UK told the industry 'we're not going to put any restrictions on importing PCBs'," said Ashby.
"I'm not suggesting in any way at all that it's linked, but the thought did cross my mind," he said. He said was "amazed" how close it was to people's homes when he visited nearly 20 years ago.
He said: "The country is in a really dire place.
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What's still developing
- Michael Sheen took up the job of investigating Douglas Gowan's concerns about an international chemical giant dumping carcinogenic waste in Wales A former Monsanto worker who spent three years helping seal toxic…
- But the 14 sites identified in the programme are just the tip of the iceberg and there are about 20,000 high-concern sites in the UK, said Dr David Megson, the scientist involved in the documentary.
- Douglas Gowan spent 50 years trying to make people listen to his concerns about chemical contamination in Wales Constance, 61, said working for Monsanto was "absolutely dreadful".
- Looking back, he said it was "quite evident that nobody was fully appraised of the potential hazard that they were exposed to".
- PCB material was covered over with plastic membrane and liquid clay When asked if he felt safe, he said: "In terms of what we knew was there and what we were potentially exposed to, no.
- "I'm not suggesting in any way at all that it's linked, but the thought did cross my mind," he said.
- Stephen Constance says he does not feel safe now he knows what chemicals he was exposed to In the documentary, journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor reveal a memo from Monsanto dated to 1972 which found that it knew…
- "The government in the UK told the industry 'we're not going to put any restrictions on importing PCBs'," said Ashby.
Sources
- BBC — source text fetched for this pass link