Douglas Gowan
Douglas Gowan (1943–2018)[1][2] was a former Assistant Parliamentary Secretary at the National Farmers Union and a researcher on PCBs. He found pollution near Brofiscin Quarry in Wales and filed the first official report in 1972 after nine cows on a local farm died of poisoning.[3]
In 2007 The Ecologist reported that Gowan had been offered witness protection after receiving death threats.[1] He also stated that he had been discredited by Monsanto through a two-year smear campaign.[4][5]
His work formed the basis of the BBC Radio 4 series Buried: The Last Witness, first broadcast in June 2024.[6][7]
Welsh actor Michael Sheen first read Gowan's name in an article in Wikipedia in 2017,[2][note 1] visited him and recorded a seven-hour interview, and spoke about him in his 2017 Raymond Williams Memorial Lecture.[8][9]
Notes
[edit]- ^ The reference Sheen read may have been the sentence "The Ecologist claimed in a 2007 article that IBT had provided expert testimony against Douglas Gowan during a court case ..." in the article Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories, which was in the encyclopedia during 2017.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Hughes, Jon; Thomas, Pat (11 October 2007). "Burying The Truth, the original Ecologist investigation into Monsanto and Brofiscin Quarry". The Ecologist. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ a b "How Michael Sheen helped to uncover a dark environmental secret". BBC News. 24 June 2024. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ Vidal, John (12 February 2007). "Monsanto dumped toxic waste in UK". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ "Open letter from Douglas Gowan". The Ecologist. 16 August 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ "Buried - The Last Witness - The Last Witness - 3. Discredit Gowan". BBC Sounds. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Buried, The Last Witness". BBC. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ Wray, Daniel Dylan (24 June 2024). "'Please come and see me because I'll be dead soon': how Michael Sheen got sucked into a forever chemicals exposé". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ "Annual Raymond Williams Memorial Lecture". Open University in Wales. 10 November 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
"[Transcipt of lecture]" (PDF). pp. 27–29. Retrieved 24 June 2024. - ^ "Actor Michael Sheen slams Monsanto for causing pollution in Wales". www.gmwatch.org. 21 November 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
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