Douglas Gowan

Douglas Gowan (1943–2018) 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.

In 2007 The Ecologist reported that Gowan had been offered witness protection after receiving death threats. He also stated that he had been discredited by Monsanto through a two-year smear campaign.

His work formed the basis of the BBC Radio 4 series Buried: The Last Witness, first broadcast in June 2024.

Welsh actor Michael Sheen first read Gowan's name in an article in Wikipedia in 2017, visited him and recorded a seven-hour interview, and spoke about him in his 2017 Raymond Williams Memorial Lecture.