Lancashire (UK) — PFAS: A Toxic Substance Overlooked by the Environment Agency 🔬

Around the AGC Chemicals site in Lancashire, regulators responsible for environmental monitoring are not testing for the very substance the factory produces and emits: EEA‑NH₄, a PFAS used in the manufacturing of non‑stick coatings (including cookware 🍳).
This compound is classified reprotoxic (Category 2) and released in large volumes.

🔬 What the Environment Agency Says

The Agency explains that it can only analyse PFAS for which validated analytical methods exist.
Yet, in its own reporting, it previously estimated that around 800 kg of EEA‑NH₄ are discharged every year into the River Wyre.
Other internal documents describe the compound as “very persistent”, mobile in the environment, and reprotoxic.

😨 Independent Experts Sound the Alarm

Dr David Megson (Manchester Metropolitan University) calls the situation nonsensical:
independent assessments have already detected EEA‑NH₄ in soils around the plant — a substance absent from official monitoring programmes.

He stresses that any meaningful investigation must examine the source, the exposed environment, and exposure pathways, and must focus on PFAS that are actually used and released locally (here, EEA‑NH₄), rather than a narrow, historically defined list.

Prof. Hans Peter Arp (NTNU) adds:

“Given everything we know about PFAS, it remains shocking that there is so little monitoring of emissions from production plants.”

This case highlights the limitations of current regulatory surveillance and the need for approaches that measure all PFAS used, produced and emitted, not just a predefined subset.

🛠️ Diversifying Methods: The Fluorine NMR (19F) Alternative

The non‑targeted 19F‑NMR method developed by CASC4DE complements targeted analyses by estimating total organic fluorine and total PFAS, far beyond the usual 20 routinely monitored substances.

🔗 Source: The Guardian