‘I could not breathe in UK’s most poisonous city – it was hell with steel within the air’
‘Britain’s most toxic town’ is so polluted that a visitor moaned “you might as well just be inhaling vape all day every day”.
What makes Port Talbot the country’s most polluted town, according to urban explorer Charlie from the Charlie Vlogs YouTube channel, is ironically the industry that’s keeping it alive.
The 2500-acre steelworks brings much-needed employment to the area, but also releases pollution into the air. A recent study found the area has high levels of air-borne particle pollution – referred to as PM10.
They said it was “largely attributed to the large steel works complex”, but admitted emissions from other areas such as road transport were also to blame.
READ MORE: ‘Dump’ UK town with ‘mouldy’ shopping centre and chilling dark side stuns visitor
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(Image: Getty Images)
“When they make the steel the process that they use creates a lot of air and water pollution due to all the gases that comes from the smelting process,” Charlie claims.
“Not only that but the heavy goods vehicles transporting all of the materials just stand idling for ages – so all of that smog, including the steelworks smog, it’s just hell.”
The town’s steelmaking history began in 1901, and the works currently employs around 4,000 people.
But current figures by Public Health Wales sh ow that people living in the area around Port Talbot have a higher rate of COPD than the national average.
Tata Steel, who owns the steelworks, has now agreed a deal with the government to replace one of the blast furnaces with a new, less polluting, electric arc furnace.
“Our joint proposal with UK Government, to reach green steelmaking in Port Talbot, will involve us moving to electric arc furnace (EAF) based steelmaking which will reduce our carbon emissions drastically and help us reach net zero by 2045,” they said in a statement to Daily Star.
And it can’t come soon enough, with taxi driver Alison telling Charlie that locals would sometime see tiny fragments of metal “glittering” in the air.
Charlie says the smell coming from the steel works is horrific – but at the same time closing it down would be a devastating blow to the town.
(Image: Bloomberg/Getty Images)
He continued: “Much like the closure of the mines in the 1980s, phasing out industries such as this not only means a loss of jobs, but a loss of identity. We’ve seen time and time again what this means for communities; crime, addiction and poverty.
“Port Talbot has one of the highest number of drug poisoning deaths in the UK, and in the last five years they’ve been in the top five in Wales every year bar one. This ripple effect is ruthless and unavoidable.”
A WalesOnline report, quoting the Office for National Statistics, revealed that the region made the top five of areas blighted by drug poisonings in Wales four of the five years between 2017-2022. The one anomaly was in 2019.
(Image: YOUTUBE/CHARLIE VLOGS)
And, according to Neath Port Talbot Council, the area had the third highest rate of drug deaths at 12.7 per 100,000, making it one of the five highest locations of drug deaths in England and Wales between 2014 and 2017.
Charlie claimed he struggled to “breathe” during his visit. “I need to get out of here – I’m not exaggerating. I need to get out of here because I can feel my nose getting blocked with soot.”
Nearby Aberavon beach sits right next to the steelworks. The windswept sands are deserted, with no sunbathers willing to brace the chilly winds, with Charlie noting there was very little in the way of shops.
