International negotiations in Geneva have led to a major breakthrough: the addition of a new "forever chemical" to the Stockholm Convention's blacklist. It marks another crucial step in the global effort to regulate what many now call the "poison of the century”. Though largely overlooked by the wider public, this decision represents a significant advance in the fight against persistent organic pollutants (POPs) – highly toxic substances that linger in the environment and accumulate in living organisms. Between April 28 and May 9, delegates from across the globe gathered in Geneva for the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS, see infobox below). There, member states agreed to ban the production and use of long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs), a group of pollutants within the broader family of PFAS chemicals. PFAS – short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, pronounced "pee-fass" – are valued for their water-resistant and ...
