According to Euronews.green, per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) belong to a large list of over 4.700 chemicals that don't occur naturally, and they are known as "forever chemicals" due to the fact that they don't decompose in nature.

Due to their non-stick or repellent properties, these are being used in cookware, food packaging, but even electronics and cosmetics.

Scientists at the University of Stockholm have recently discovered that these chemicals are being present in rainwater that falls in most locations on Earth, including Antarctica.

As experts better understood the impact of such chemicals, safe guidance levels for them have dropped significantly.

Ian Cousins, lead author of the study and professor at the Department of Environmental Science at Stockholm University, said that "there has been an astounding decline in guideline values for PFAS in drinking water in the last 20 years."

"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", he added.

"Forever chemicals" pose great risks to our health, if they manage to make their way into our bodies, including fertility problems, increased risk of cancer and even developmental delays in children.

Dr Jane Muncke, managing director of the Food Packing Foundation in Zurich, said that "it cannot be that some few benefit economically while polluting the drinking water for millions of others, and causing serious health problems,"

"The vast amounts that it will cost to reduce PFAS in drinking water to levels that are safe, based on current scientific understanding, need to be paid by the industry producing and using these toxic chemicals", she concluded.