Huntsman faces legal action over Teesside benzene emissions
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- Environment Agency is considering criminal enforcement against Huntsman Polyurethanes in Teesside over multiple permit breaches linked to benzene emissions, a carcinogen with no safe exposure level per the World Health Organization.
- Huntsman decommissioned a benzene-reducing process in 2023 and replaced it with a third-party-controlled alternative that "periodically paused", releasing benzene directly to air; site emissions rose from 13 tonnes in 2022 to 17 tonnes in 2024.
- EA modelling commissioned in March 2026 found "significant" breaches of air quality standards in all scenarios, with one predicting a 933% exceedance of the 24-hour benzene limit, though the agency's internal review concluded environmental concentrations remained below legal standards.
- Huntsman refused to share its own air monitoring data with the Guardian and has not shared it with the EA, despite the company telling the Guardian that data shows no exceedances of exposure limits on site.
- David Santillo of Greenpeace Research Laboratories called the EA's slow response a "travesty", and Ally Lewis of the University of York described the agency's approach as "remarkably laissez-faire and hands off".
- Boston College Global Observatory research has linked proximity to plastic production facilities with elevated cancer risk, including leukaemia, framing the Teesside case as symptomatic of the global plastics industry's toxic footprint.
Why it matters: Huntsman's 2023 process switch raised annual benzene emissions from 13 to 17 tonnes, and the company is now refusing to share its air monitoring data with the EA. The standoff tests whether UK regulators can compel compliance evidence from a subsidiary of Huntsman Corporation, a publicly traded US chemical giant with $6bn in 2025 revenues, while the EA — which knew of the issue since 2023 — only began investigating this year.
