Michael Sheen investigates cancer concern around chemical dumping

Michael Phillips spent his childhood in the 1980s playing with friends at a lagoon, firing air guns at rusty barrels that released clouds of coloured powder - completely oblivious to the toxic chemicals within.

Decades later, several of those friends and Phillips himself have developed rare cancers, which they believe may be linked to this.

Researcher and whistleblower Douglas Gowan tried to raise the alarm about 14 such sites - 12 of which were in Wales - but died before his warnings were heeded.

"What he told me made my blood run cold," said Hollywood actor Michael Sheen, who spoke to Gowan just months before he died and has now continued his investigation in a new BBC iPlayer documentary.

Gowan, a former farming consultant, alleged that chemical giant Monsanto had dumped "huge amounts of industrial chemicals all around Wales".

These included polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), he said, which he described as "some of the worst contaminants known to man" and were widely used during the last century, including for lipsticks and white goods.

"This stuff builds up in the environment, builds up in animals and fish, and it builds up in us," Gowan said.

Eastman Chemical Company, which is responsible for Monsanto's legacy production in the UK, did not respond to either Sheen and his team or the BBC when asked to comment.

It was not just him who was affected.

"I lost a very close friend who used to be [at the lagoon] all the time. He died of breast cancer.

"I have another friend who passed away with brain cancer. I've got another friend who is trying to get over brain cancer, I have another friend who's had all of his lymph glands taken out because they were cancerous."

Another friend has the exact type of cancer Phillips had, and his surgeon told him: "For me to catch what I had was like winning the lottery.

"For your friend who lives down the road to get exactly the same, he said it's like winning the lottery every day for six months. It's not a coincidence."

Phillips' blood tests showed higher-than-average PCB levels.

"It's chilling to think that having any PCBs in your blood is normal, when 90 years ago no-one would have had them as they didn't exist," said Sheen.

The actor also had his blood tested and it revealed 81 different types of PCBs, despite him not having lived near any dump sites.

"There is no safe level of PCBs, it's a risk all of us have to try and manage. The lower your level of PCBs, the lower your risk of getting cancer," he said.

In another memo from 1972, journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor, who are helping Sheen with the investigation, found that Monsanto had decided PCBs were a worldwide problem, an environmental danger and a risk to human health, and were shutting down work at Anniston.

But then there were proposals to increase capacity to make five million more kilograms of PCBs at their plant in Newport.

"They're doing it in Newport because the legal risk in America is so much," said Ashby.

"Then the government in the UK told the industry 'we're not going to put any restrictions on importing PCBs.' So they begin importing from around the world, hundreds of tonnes of PCBs."

Gowan said: "If one wanted to be cynical about it, you could say that they were choosing places where chronic health issues might be hidden behind pre-existing health issues.

"People grew up with the knowledge that... they were in an area that had coal mining, heavy industry, the environment was contaminated, and there were health problems."

Environmental regulator Natural Resources Wales (NRW) tested Llwyneinion acid tar lagoon close to Ruabon.

Investigation work found the site did not meet the legal definition of contaminated land.

Wrexham council said because of this there was "no statutory requirement for remediation", but that it continued to carry out regular inspections and water monitoring.

It said only limited information from more recent testing had been shared with it, but it remained open to reviewing any new "robust and verifiable evidence".

NRW also said that "the legacy of historic industrial activity" in the UK and globally is an issue and as "most of this took place before modern environmental regulations were in place," the "records can be limited and the nature of waste is not always fully known."

The Welsh government said: "Addressing contaminated land is a key priority for this government.

"Our industrial heritage has left us with a difficult legacy that can affect both people and places - we want to ensure this does not pose a risk to our communities or our natural environment.

"A survey of local authorities carried out by Natural Resources Wales in 2015 identified more than 9,000 potential sites requiring further investigation.

"While not all of these sites will pose a risk to human health or the environment, this figure demonstrates the scale of the issue facing regulators in Wales.

"We now intend to develop a Wales-wide strategy to progressively restore post-industrial land, so that communities are no longer exposed to potential risks."

Additional reporting by Wales environment correspondent Steffan Messenger

Buried with Michael Sheen is on BBC Two, BBC One Wales and BBC iPlayer from 17 August at 21:00 BST

Reporting from BBC News contributed to this story.