No corner of Earth is untouched. From Tibet to Antarctica, so-called "forever chemicals" have seeped into the blood of nearly every living creature.

Tainting food, water and wildlife, these toxic substances have been linked to ailments ranging from birth defects to rare cancers.

Yet if it weren't for the efforts of residents in two heavily impacted American towns, the world might still be in the dark.

In the new book "They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Chemicals," investigative journalist Mariah Blake recounts how people in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and Hoosick Falls, New York, blew the whistle on the industrial giants that poisoned them -- and, in the process, forced the world to reckon with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

"We're talking about a class of chemicals that doesn't break down in the environment," Blake tells AFP, calling it the "worst contamination crisis in human history."

First developed in the 1930s, PFAS are prized for their strength, heat resistance, and water- and grease-repelling powers. Built on the carbon-fluoride bond -- the strongest in chemistry -- they persist........

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