Take action on PFAS
You can write to your MP urging them to take action on PFAS.
Find an idea for an email here, personalising this email will make it more powerful:
Dear [NAME OF MP],
As your constituent, I’m worried about the widespread pollution of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, which poses serious risks to the UK environment and people’s health. I ask that you write to the Minister Emma Hardy MP urging her to commit to matching EU action on PFAS, including plans to ban the use and manufacture of PFAS as a group of chemicals.
PFAS are a large group of over 10,000 chemicals and are used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. They are extremely persistent in nature and are therefore commonly referred to as ‘forever chemicals.’ Some PFAS emitted today could still be present in the environment for generations to come. Exposure to the most studied PFAS has been linked to a range of adverse health effects, from thyroid disease and liver damage to an increased risk of breast, kidney and testicular cancer. There is also mounting evidence of their adverse health impacts on wildlife, from insects to otters and seabirds.
PFAS contamination is widespread across the globe and also in the UK. Studies have detected them everywhere – in our drinking water, soil, wildlife, food and even in our blood. There is no constituency in the UK, including the one that we share, where PFAS will not be found. As well as this widespread pollution, the Environment Agency has estimated the UK has up to 10,000 areas which are especially contaminated. One of these ‘hotspots’, the North Yorskshire town of Higher Bentham, is so polluted with these forever chemicals that people are scared to eat produce from their own gardens and some residents are struggling with serious diseases linked to exposure to these chemicals.
We have been here before with extremely persistent chemicals. The UK’s killer whale population has not had a calf in almost 30 years, which is linked to PCB pollution. An extremely persistent chemical that was banned decades ago but is still in the environment and building up in the bodies of long-lived species, being passed down from one generation to the next. If we do not act urgently, today’s youth will pay the cost of this mounting burden of pollution and pass it on to future generations.
While our European neighbours are already benefiting from better regulation on PFAS and have proposed restricting PFAS as a group of 10,000 chemicals, the UK’s inadequate regulation of PFAS is leaving people and the environment less protected from these and other harmful chemicals. I refer you to further information about this issue, and hope you will support a PFAS-free economy to protect the environment and public health from the threat of forever chemicals.
I look forward to hearing from you, including what response you’ve received to representations you’ve made on this important issue.
Thank you for your time,
Best wishes,
[FULL NAME AND ADDRESS: to confirm you’re a constituent]
