The UK Government is scrapping chemical safety laws. We're going to court to stop them.

What's in your blood?

Right now, there are chemicals in your blood that didn't exist a generation ago. They're in your food, water, clothes, toiletries, and furniture. Many were never properly tested for long-term safety. And the science now shows links between these chemicals and kidney, liver and breast cancer, infertility, heart disease, diabetes, miscarriage, and childhood developmental harm.

There can be hardly anyone whose life hasn't been touched in some way by these health conditions.

But instead of acting on the science and tightening up chemicals regulations to protect our health, the Government has just relaxed the regulations, making it easier for more new chemicals to be sold in the UK via a new fast track route.

The consequences could harm our health for generations. By the time we understand how, the damage will be done.

What has happened?

In May 2026, new Chemicals Regulations came into force that change how hazardous substances are approved for use in the UK.

For years, the UK aligned with world's most comprehensive chemical safety system, built by the EU over decades, covering tens of thousands of substances, and requiring companies to prove a chemical is safe before it can be sold. No other country has anything comparable. This new law breaks that link.

The new regulations create a fast-track for approving chemicals, opening the door to accepting safety decisions made by countries with lower standards.

During the consultation, the Government promised that only the EU would be considered “trusted” to qualify for fast-track approvals. But that promise did not make it into the final Regulations. Instead, they set just two vague tests: that a country has adopted chemicals checks "in a similar way" to the UK, and that it has a "transparent" process. Who decides whether a country passes? The HSE, based on its own opinion, with no independent check, no parliamentary vote, and no requirement to consult the public.

The law also allows Government to override safety decisions in undefined "exceptional circumstances", and the Government's own documents reveal this includes situations where safety gets in the way of economic growth. In other words, the Government has created a huge loophole to put corporate profit before your health.

We challenged them on this. They told us everything was fine. We don't believe them and we think the courts should decide.

If you buy our pork, we’ll buy your chemicals

The UK is signing trade deals at speed. The new law uses vague criteria that any country could potentially meet, and the HSE decides who qualifies behind closed doors.

So, when Ministers negotiate trade deals, the promise of fast-track access to the UK chemicals market becomes a powerful bargaining chip, one that could be offered quietly as part of a wider package, with no public debate about the safety implications.

Consider the United States. It has a well-known chemicals system and could plausibly meet the vague criteria in the new law. But in America, chemicals are assumed safe until proven harmful, the opposite approach to the one the UK has followed until now. Atrazine is a weedkiller so toxic the UK banned it over 20 years ago. In the US, it is the second most popular herbicide in the country. Under the new law, there is nothing to stop a future government granting the US "trusted" status as part of a trade deal, and chemicals we banned decades ago could be back on the table.

And once you grant a country trusted status, how do you take it back? Revoking it could trigger a diplomatic incident, jeopardise trade relationships, and provoke retaliation. No government wants that. So the pressure will always be to look the other way, even when the science says otherwise.

This is a one-way gate. Once it opens, it will not close. And every time it opens a little wider, the chemicals that flow through it end up in your food, your water, and your body.

Who are Fighting Dirty?

We are Georgia Elliott-Smith, George Monbiot and Steve Hyndside: three campaigners who have had enough of business as usual. We want real change, fast, and we believe using the law is one of the most effective ways to make it happen.

Last year, we took legal action against the Environment Agency, forcing them to admit their incompetence was enabling the illegal export of 55 million waste tyres each year for burning in India, fuelling massive pollution, exploitation, and organised crime. As a result, the EA changed the regulations and appointed a new waste exports team to clean up practices across all rubbish shipped abroad from the UK.

Legal action works. We are committed to using it to close loopholes, tighten policies and ensure that people, not profit-making corporates, are protected.

We are supported by an incredible legal team including Ricardo Gama, Julia Eriksen, and Carol Day from Leigh Day, David Wolfe KC of Matrix Chambers, and Julianne Morrison and Alastair Holden Ross of Monckton Chambers.

What do we want?

We want chemical safety laws that protect people, not convenience for industry.

The Health & Safety Executive and the Department for Work & Pensions are responsible for these regulations, so they are the defendants in our legal challenge.

We want the court to examine whether these changes were made lawfully, and whether the Government is sticking to its promises not to weaken protections. We want clear, binding safeguards, not vague assurances. We want proper scrutiny, not a system that hands the HSE unchecked powers with no independent oversight or ability for Parliament or the public to check their homework.

Above all, we want a future where chemicals are proven safe before they enter our lives, not after the damage is done.

Why we need you

Fighting Dirty is a small not-for-profit with minimal funds. We have no wealthy backers. We are bringing this case because somebody has to, and because we believe the public has a right to be protected from harmful chemicals.

Without your support, we cannot afford to take this action. It is as simple as that.

The Regulations are already in force. The clock is ticking on our legal deadline. If this law goes unchallenged, it could shape how chemicals are regulated in the UK for generations to come.

THANK YOU!