As the first rain droplets hit the soil and reinvigorate the thirsty plants in your yard after a summer drought, that iconic, life-giving petrichor scent fills your lungs and you feel a huge sense of relief.

It’s a romantic notion to go out in that first rain storm, stretch our your arms and spin around in it like you’re in a movie.

You might even be so thrilled as to open your mouth and drink in some of those precious, life giving droplets.

However – and not to rain on your parade – a study from scientists at Stockholm University has proven that doing so might not be the best idea after all.

In their paper, which was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, the researchers suggest that any romantic notions of collecting and drinking your own rainwater are misguided at best, and likely very harmful to your health.

That’s because their study has proven that, no matter where you are in the world, your rainwater is likely contaminated by Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (more usually and simply known as PFAS).

These man-made chemicals are ravaging our atmosphere, and fall to Earth as rain and snow and, as a result, make innocent-seeming rainwater quite hazardous to consume, as Stockholm University’s Ian Cousins explained in a statement:

“There has been an astounding decline in guideline values for PFAS in drinking water in the last 20 years. For example, the drinking water guideline value for one well known substance in the PFAS class, namely the cancer-causing perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), has declined by 37.5 million times in the U.S.”

With this guidance in mind, the team collected and analyzed rainwater from all over the world, noting that – despite over two decades of PFAS being phased out in manufacturing – their contamination persists in our atmosphere, where it is effectively trapped.

Until it falls to the Earth in precipitation, that is.

And staggeringly, everywhere in the world – including in the most untouched parts like Antarctica, PFAS continue to contaminate rainwater, as Cousins continued:

“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.”

Given that these persistent chemicals are known to cause a wide range of health problems – including cancer and infertility, among many others – their pervasive presence in our atmosphere is troubling to say the least.

Though these chemicals have been phased out, more needs to be done to improve the quality of our atmosphere and our rainwater – and ensure that similar man-made chemicals do not blight our planet into the future.

After all, though some of us live in economically privileged situations, for others all around the world, rainwater is all they have to survive.

But at what cost?

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.