A “forever chemical” that is suspected of damaging fertility has been found in rivers across England, including within areas that supply drinking water, data shared exclusively with The i Paper has revealed.
These are the first tests by the Environment Agency (EA) of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), an emergent chemical of concern amongst scientists due to its links to reproductive health issues.
In tests of 50 surface water sites and 49 groundwater sites across England between March and July 2024, TFA was present in all surface water sites and 43 of the groundwater sites.
The highest reading was detected in groundwater near Finchingfield, North Essex, while the highest concentration in surface water was found in the River Ancholme in Lincolnshire.
Which weight-loss drug ads are being banned
Two online pharmacies have been sanctioned by the advertising watchdog after they for oral weight-loss medicines.
Which pharmacies are being sanctioned?
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ruled that and wrongly used ads on social media and on their own websites to promote GLP-1 anti-obesity treatments.
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What you need to know
- Medicines cannot be advertised in the UK until licensed for use by regulators. Even once authorised, prescription-only drugs cannot be advertised to the public.
- The ASA found that Simple Online Pharmacy broke these rules by inviting people to join a waiting list for GLP-1 slimming pills on 1 June. The first such medicine was not authorised in the UK until 11 June.
- Pharmacy Online also had its adverts banned after it promoted the oral version of Wegovy after it had been licensed as prescription-only. The ads included a website pop-up inviting people to “pre-order” the medication.
The licensing of GLP-1 pills, seen as easier to administer than weight-loss jabs, has boosted the £210m market for anti-obesity drugs obtained with private prescriptions.
However, it has also provided regulators with a headache as they seek to ensure use only occurs under proper medical supervision.
‘Treatments could put people at risk’
“These are powerful medicines, so it’s important that ads don’t encourage people to seek treatment in ways that could put them at risk”
Catherine Drewett, investigations manager at the ASA
Daniel Craig’s Bond suit from Skyfall up for auction
A suit worn by Daniel Craig in the 2012 film will go up for auction this month.
Bond suite for sale
A worn by Daniel Craig while playing James Bond in the 2012 film is among the lots being offered in a from the 007 franchise.
A collection of 400 items spanning every Bond film since 1962’s is being sold via an online auction open until 27 October. It also includes a complete set of 14 first edition 007 books written by Ian Fleming.
What you need to know
- The grey suit, complete with branded shirt and a tie and cufflinks, was worn by Craig in the opening sequence of as Bond chases a villain across Istanbul, Turkey.
- The outfit, part of Craig’s wardrobe for his fourth of five outings as Bond, has a pre-sale estimate of between £20,000 and £40,000.
- Also offered is a navy dress with a plunging neckline worn by Hollywood star Ana de Armas as secret agent Paloma in the most recent Bond film, .
The Bond memorabilia up for sale
A cinema poster for , the first Bond Film and starring Sean Connery, has an estimate pre-sale price of £8k to £16k.
A clapper board used for miniature special effects sequences in is offered with a pre-sale price tag of £4k to £8k.
With an estimate of £20k to £40k, another star lot is 14 first-edition, first impression 007 books written by Ian Fleming.
What you need to know about new air travel rules
As the October half-term looms, British holidaymakers taking to the skies may notice a number of changes as they head to Europe.
Here’s what you need to know…
Air travel changes
Face as passport
E-gates at UK airports will soon work without a passport for British nationals by using facial recognition to match travellers with their passport image held on Home Office systems.
Free personal item
Since July, passengers can take a small bag (40x30x15cm) on board for free. EU airlines must also include at least a carry-on trolley bag in the starting price for flights.
The EU’s EES is now in full effect at most Schengen area airports, causing delays for passengers who will now need to register biometric data at gates.
Anyone trying to avoid the queues should try to secure a seat towards the front of the plane to be able to dash to passport control before queues form.
Pro-Palestine march to go ahead on 7 October anniversary
A pro-Palestine march on the anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack has been given the go-ahead by police, under strict conditions.
The protest
Who is protesting?
A group of students called the University of London Coalition are expected to march in the capital on Wednesday.
Why they are marching
Organisers urged people to “take to the street and demand an end to the Palestinian genocide”.
Why is it controversial?
It has drawn criticism for being held on the anniversary of Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.
Police restrictions
- The group is required to form at Lincoln’s Inn Fields by 12.30pm, take a prescribed route to Russell Square, and finish the rally by 2pm.
- Demonstrators must not wear a face covering which conceals their identity, with the Met Police saying anyone who breaches these conditions can be arrested.
- The march was originally set to leave from King’s College London, but restrictions require them to be further from the university.
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Education Secretary Lucy Powell called on the student march organisers “to for others by moving it” to another date. She added that universities should take “a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitic abuse, backed by robust disciplinary policies”.
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‘High bar for ban not met’
We hear the calls for this event to be banned. The police cannot ban protests and can only ask the Home Secretary to do so if the risk of serious disorder is so high that it can’t be managed by conditions. That high bar is not met here.
met police Deputy Assistant Commissioner James Harman, who leads Met Operations including public order policing
What we know as Ofcom opens first investigation into Meta
Ofcom has launched its first investigation into Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta under the Online Safety Act.
Here’s everything we know.
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Why is Ofcom investigating Meta?
Online safety regulator Ofcom is investigating Meta regarding its disappearing content feature.
- Ofcom said it was looking into whether the tech giant adequately assessed the risks of Instagram Instants before launching it in May.
- The feature allows users to take and share photos that disappear after being viewed. It cannot be seen after 24 hours.
- Meta said it had “conducted a risk analysis” and briefed Ofcom “on a number of occasions” before launch.
What risks does the feature carry?
Ofcom said on Tuesday it had launched a formal investigation to establish “whether Meta failed to comply with its duties under the Act by not carrying out a suitable and sufficient illegal content risk assessment and children’s risk assessment before the launch of Instants”.
Meta’s response
Meta takes its regulatory obligations under the Online Safety Act seriously
A Meta spokesperson insisted Instants has in-built protections including “blocking screenshots, reshares and forwarding, no public feed, and Teen Account protections on automatically”.
Mark Zuckerberg’s toxic empire is starting to crack
Meta’s decision to pay more than $17bn (£12bn) to settle a landmark US lawsuit is being seen as a reckoning for a company that has got away with preying on children and ransacking its users’ data for decades.
Paramount and Warner Bros mega deal creates Skydance
Paramount has completed its $110bn (£83bn) takeover of Warner Bros Discovery to create a new Hollywood giant.
Details on the deal
Big money merger
The mega deal will bring both major film studio brands under the name Skydance.
Which channels are involved?
It also brings together streaming services and TV networks including CBS and HBO Max.
UK channels
In the UK, meanwhile, Skydance will control assets such as Channel 5 and TNT Sports.
Issues with regulators
Paramount, which was bought by Skydance last year, initially launched a hostile approach before gaining the approval of the Warner Bros board.
Britain’s regulators greenlit the deal in August, with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport promising not to intervene after several “legally binding commitments” from Paramount over its footprint in the UK.
The deal had to gain approval from regulators across the world, while also settling a lawsuit lodged by Democratic attorney generals in 12 states seeking to block the merger.
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TFA is a type of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), a group of toxic, human-made compounds often referred to as “forever chemicals” because they can persist in the environment for thousands of years.
Scientists have raised concerns that levels of the toxic chemicals are set to increase, with one expert saying the EA results are among the worst sets of data he has seen.
The data obtained by Watershed and Unearthed, the investigative arm of Greenpeace UK, shows the EA detected TFA at the vast majority of an initial 99 sites tested in 2024.
There are currently no regulations limiting the level of TFA in water sources in the UK, however two-fifths of water sites tested by the EA breached new limits set by the European Union.
‘TFA will be around for the next thousand years’
TFA has come under increased scrutiny by scientists and regulators in recent years due to concerns over how long it remains in the environment and its potential impact on human health.
While the true scale of this threat is still being researched, the European Chemicals Agency recently recommended that TFA be classed as a presumed toxicant to reproductive health, meaning it may impair fertility or harm an unborn child. This classification is based on animal testing rather than human studies at this stage.
At 40 per cent of the surface waters tested, TFA was above 2,200 ng/l, the level that would breach the EU’s new limit for PFAS in rivers and lakes if TFA were the only PFAS present.
Alistair Boxall, professor of environmental science at the University of York, who has carried out TFA testing in UK rivers, said the levels being found were not necessarily high enough to trigger health problems at this stage, but the “concerning” thing was that “the levels seem to be rising”.
TFA can be produced when some PFAS break down, meaning that some TFA found in our rivers is likely the legacy of pollution released decades ago.
“The TFA that is on the Earth today will be on the Earth for the next thousand years, and the TFA concentrations we see now are probably the lowest we’ll see in your lifetime,” said Professor Hans Peter Heinrich Arp, an expert on TFA at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He said the results of the EA’s testing are among the worst sets of data he has seen.
The limited testing done in the UK to date shows TFA concentrations above European countries, including Germany and Sweden.
UK regulation lags behind
Certain pesticides are believed to be one the main sources of TFA pollution in the UK, as well as fluorinated gases that are used in cooling and refrigerant fluids.
The chemical makes its way into water courses through run-off from land and from the atmosphere. It can enter the human body through the food and water we consume, and has been found in fruit, vegetables, cereals and wine.
“This is the exact type of PFAS that we talk about raining down on us, going back into the hydrological cycle, being evaporated up and raining down. It’s irreversible,” said Professor Patrick Byrne, a hydrologist at Liverpool John Moores University.
The EU banned the herbicide flufenacet in 2025 due to concerns around its hormone-disrupting properties and TFA, however, the herbicide is still widely used on crops including wheat and barley in the UK.
There are currently no regulations on TFA levels in drinking water across the UK. England’s drinking water regulator, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, is currently undertaking a research programme to understand the risks, the results of which are expected early next year.
Professor Boxall said there is limited information on TFA in UK drinking water, however, the “consensus” in the scientific community is that the chemical is unlikely to be removed from water as part of the treatment process.
An EA spokesperson said: “We are taking action to improve our understanding of chemicals in the environment to protect our rivers, groundwater and drinking water catchments.
“This includes monitoring emerging evidence, including information on traces of chemicals in the environment, sources and potential impacts.”