Michael Sheen to address MPs on chemical contamination in Wales
Eleanor Storey, Press Association
Actor Michael Sheen will address MPs about a documentary he presented which investigated claims of chemical contamination in Wales.
The BBC series Buried with Michael Sheen aired last month and explored the findings of whistleblower Douglas Gowan, who believed people had been poisoned by decades of exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment.
On Thursday, the actor will appear before the Welsh Affairs Committee alongside investigative journalists Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby, who co-presented the programme, to discuss their findings with MPs.
The documentary explored Mr Gowan’s claims that thousands of tonnes of toxic industrial chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) had been dumped in sites across Wales and north-west England.
Sheen, who was raised in Port Talbot in South Wales, met and interviewed Mr Gowan shortly before he died in 2018 aged 74.
The series featured segments of these interviews alongside Sheen meeting members of affected communities, forensic scientists and environmental experts.
The actor and his co-presenters are expected to discuss with MPs what policy and legislative changes could be considered to better support communities living near former industrial sites.
Speaking at a Q&A about the documentary in July, Sheen said he hoped making the series would be a “push for something to happen”.
He added: “I think it’s important to say that the biggest injustice here is that the people who are responsible for this have got away with not having to take responsibility.
“The people who dump this stuff should be made responsible, but what happens is the company mutates into a different company and a different company and a different company and suddenly the people who are responsible don’t exist any more.
“We have to find some international response to this in order to take the pressure off the small communities and the individuals who are here who are giving their life to this. It can’t be on them.”
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