Soil contamination: BBC unearths 1000s of dodgy sites with toxic histories across the UK

Is your garden killing you? It may well be… That’s a likely conclusion to a BBC investigation that unearthed thousands of sites potentially contaminated with toxic chemicals that have never been checked by councils.

After contacting all 122 unitary authorities in Wales, Scotland and England about their contaminated land, 73 responded to the Freedom of Information request from the broadcaster, revealing that there were 430,000 potential sites identified in the early 2000s.

A staggering 13,093 of those were considered to be potentially high-risk, which experts said should have then been subject to physical testing. But more than 11,000 of them remain unchecked.

Half of 22 councils in Wales told the BBC they could not or would not share figures but those that did, identified 698 high-risk sites of which 586 have yet to be inspected.

Contaminated land is an area that has been polluted during a previous use — be that a factory, power station, railway line, landfill site, petrol station or even a dry cleaner. In some cases, proximity to a former mine may also qualify. As can the existence of structures painted with lead paint that has peeled off or even the presence of a busy road nearby.

The sites are likely to contain heavy metals such as lead or arsenic as well as a variety of hydrocarbons, which are the remnants of incomplete burning of organic compounds like coal, petrol, diesel and so on.

The Environmental Protection Act requires councils to list all potential contaminated sites, and inspect the high-risk ones to make sure people and property are not at risk. But a lack of funding — and possibly organisation — has resulted in the majority going unchecked.

Indeed, the UK government has said that local authorities have a statutory duty to inspect potentially contaminated sites but many councils say that they do not have the money to do it.

The BBC research was published just days after the release of Netflix drama Toxic Town, which tells the story of families fighting for justice in the aftermath of one of the UK's biggest environmental scandals.

Lead is one of the most common contaminants in the UK because of the country’s heavy industrial past and heritage of mining dating back centuries.

According to the Financial Times, there are more than 3,600 old lead mines in England alone that continue to disperse the metal into the environment. Lead can accumulate in waterways and soil, where it can come in contact with individuals who breathe in particles or ingest by consuming produce grown in contaminated soil. It can also be consumed by animals before entering the food chain.

Once consumed by humans, the metal has a devastating impact on almost every organ in the body, with even minimal levels of exposure capable of having a harmful effect. Exposure can also impair the mental development of children.

The World Health Organization says any level of exposure is capable of having a harmful effect though health thresholds in place in multiple global jurisdictions such as the EU, Canada and US suggest a safe level as a guide (our reports include these).

But it is not just about lead. A government report suggests that sites posing the greatest health risks were also contaminated by chemicals such as arsenic, nickel, chromium and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found in soil.

That is why Safe Soil UK has made the testing of soil for heavy metals and other contaminants as convenient as possible. Some of our most popular testing suites take in the metals and hydrocarbons mentioned above:

Basic Metals Screen including big three of lead, mercury and arsenic - £100

Standard Contamination Suite including heavy metals, hydrocarbons and asbestos - £250

Advanced Contamination Suite includes the above plus a breakdown of hydrocarbons - £325

You can peruse all of our available packages here.