A UK government regulator is considering legal action against a chemical plant in Teesside, northern England, for releasing too much benzene — a gas that causes cancer — into the air. Releasing more benzene than your permit allows is a criminal offence under UK law. The regulator, called the Environment Agency, told the Guardian it is discussing further steps with its legal team and has contacted two health agencies to check whether the emissions have harmed people nearby or workers at the plant The Guardian, 2026-08-04.

The plant belongs to Huntsman Polyurethanes, which makes chemicals used to create plastics. It sits in a cluster of chemical factories in Redcar, North Yorkshire. Huntsman is part of a larger global company called Huntsman Corporation, which earned $6 billion in 2025. The Teesside site makes a chemical called aniline, which is used to produce polyurethanes — materials found in things like foam mattresses and insulation The Guardian, 2026-08-04. The site is classed as 'Top Tier' under a UK safety system called the Control of Major Accident Hazagements (COMAH), which applies to facilities that handle large amounts of dangerous substances. That means it gets inspected jointly by the Environment Agency and another body called the Health and Safety Executive Environment Agency consultation, 2024-01-11.

The problem started in 2023. Huntsman shut down a system that had been reducing its benzene emissions and switched to a different method run by another company. According to Environment Agency documents, the new system 'periodically paused' — meaning it stopped working from time to time — and benzene was released straight into the air when it did. The Agency knew about this in 2023 but did not investigate until 2026. Records show benzene emissions from the site went from 13 tonnes in 2022 to 17 tonnes in 2024 The Guardian, 2026-08-04.

Benzene is a chemical that causes cancer in humans, specifically a type of blood cancer called leukaemia. The World Health Organization says there is no safe level of exposure. In March 2026, the Environment Agency inspected the site and recorded several breaches of the plant's permit. It then told Huntsman to run computer simulations — a bit like a weather forecast, but for pollution — to see how far the benzene was spreading. Those simulations found 'significant' breaches of legal air quality limits in every scenario they tested. In one case, the predicted benzene level was 933% above the 24-hour legal limit The Guardian, 2026-08-04.

The Agency's own review of the simulations called the impacts 'not insignificant' but said the predicted benzene levels in the environment remained below the relevant standards. A Huntsman spokesperson said the emissions were not illegal and were 'fully compliant with our permit conditions' The Guardian, 2026-08-04. David Santillo, a senior scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories, University of Exeter, called the emissions 'very significant' and said the Agency's slow response was a 'travesty' The Guardian, 2026-08-04.

Separately, in March 2026 the Environment Agency advertised a proposed change to Huntsman's permit relating to emissions of two metals — chromium and nickel — into a nearby waterway gov.uk, 2026-03-20.

The Teesside site is already in a difficult position. In March 2026, Peter Huntsman — the American owner of the company — said he would shut the facility down if energy costs did not fall within three months The Guardian, 2026-03-15. The BBC reported that Huntsman is thinking about closing one of its last remaining UK sites because of a 'hostile business environment', a decision that could cost about 100 jobs BBC, 2026-03-16.

The broader context here is a tug-of-war between two priorities: keeping UK industry competitive and protecting the environment. The Environment Agency knew about the benzene problem in 2023 but waited three years to investigate, during which annual emissions rose by four tonnes. That gap raises real questions about whether regulators have enough capacity to monitor high-risk sites when companies change how they operate. There is also a clear disagreement between Huntsman, which says it followed the rules, and the Agency, which documented permit breaches and saw the company's own modelling predict emissions nearly ten times the legal limit. A court may ultimately have to settle that dispute. All of this is happening at a plant whose owner has already threatened to close it — meaning the enforcement decision could affect not just this facility but the wider debate about whether the UK can hold on to its remaining chemical manufacturing industry.