Over 1,000 people in South Cambridgeshire have been supplied with contaminated drinking water, a Guardian report found.

Dangerously high levels of the chemical perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS), which has been linked to increased cholesterol, low birthweight and suppressed immune response, were supplied to those living in Great Shelford and Stapleton.

Last June, Cambridge Water admitted that they had removed a supply containing over four times the legal limit of this chemical.

Despite this, the company failed to inform the residents that they had been exposed to the chemical in the first place.

The company has not revealed how long the water has been contaminated for, but said that samples taken in 2020 show that levels were previously under the legal limit.

In a press release, Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner said: “It is totally unacceptable that Cambridge Water have supplied more than 1,000 people in our county with water containing dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals.

“What is even more shocking is that the company chose not to inform those households that they had been exposed.

“This case illustrates how some private water companies are failing to fulfil their duty to provide clean and safe drinking water.”

The chair of the Great Shelford parish council said that they had heard “nothing at all” from Cambridge Water, whilst the clerk of the Stapleford parish council said that they had “no knowledge” of the high levels of chemicals in the water.

Known as “forever chemicals”, the chemical PFOS was often used in airfields and firefighting training fields until the early 2000s, and is designed to never break down into the environment.

According to a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at East Carolina University, Jamie DeWitt, other substances within the wider polyfluoroalkyl family have been linked “kidney and testicular cancer and those in utero or very young are at risk of developing health problems.”

A spokesperson for Cambridge Water said that public health is a “top priority” and that they will continue to review their risk assessments for other dangerous chemicals.