Study Reveals Rainwater Isn’t Safe To Drink Anywhere In The World Because Of 'Forever Chemicals'

Rainwater everywhere on Earth has been found to contain such dangerous levels of man-made 'forever chemicals' linked to cancer and other illnesses, that it is now “unsafe to drink” according to newly released water quality guidelines.

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Researchers from Stockholm University and ETH Zurich published a study in the Environmental Science & Technology journal that found traces of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or ‘forever chemicals’ in rainwater everywhere from Tibet to Antarctica. PFAS are man-made chemicals detected since the 1940s linked to hormone disruption, cancer, reproductive issues, and fetal developmental issues.

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Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have many uses, including in firefighting foams, the non-stick coatings on frying pans, and textiles. They are thought to get into the environment through industrial emissions, transfer from packaging, wastewater and evaporation from the foams.

PFAS are known as 'forever chemicals' because of their extreme persistence in the environment - some take over a thousand years to degrade.

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This new study, which looks at four specific chemicals in the class, suggests that levels of one PFAS in rainwater around the globe often "greatly exceed" US drinking water advisory levels. Soil around the world is similarly contaminated, evidence suggests.

The study's findings lead the authors to conclude that a planetary boundary has been crossed - that there simply is no safe space on Earth to avoid these substances.

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Professor at the Department of Environmental Science Stockholm University and lead author of the study Ian Cousins said in statement: “Based on the latest U.S. guidelines for PFOA in drinking water, rainwater everywhere would be judged unsafe to drink.

“Although in the industrial world we don’t often drink rainwater, many people around the world expect it to be safe to drink and it supplies many of our drinking water sources.”

"I'm not saying that we're all going to die of these effects. But we're in a place now where you can't live anywhere on the planet, and be sure that the environment is safe."

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Major chemical company 3M first started manufacturing the two most notorious members of the PFAS family, PFOS and PFOA, in the 1950s. Many scientific tests over the decades proved that the chemicals caused multiple health problems and, by 2002, it had largely phased them out.

Over the past 20 years, knowledge of the toxicity of PFAS has continued to increase, and thus guideline values of PFAS in drinking water, surface waters and soils have decreased.

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While there are moves at the European level to restrict the uses of these chemicals and to find more benign replacements, there are also hopes that the industry will quickly move away from using PFAS.