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 sound 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.