Inside the Forever Label campaign, and the disclosure gap at the heart of fashion’s PFAS problem.

You can read a list of what’s in your shampoo. You can check a packet of biscuits for allergens. You can be told, in plain language, whether a financial product carries risk. You cannot look at the label of a school blazer, a raincoat or a pair of trainers and know whether they have been treated with PFAS.

PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of up to 10,000 synthetic chemicals used across the textile industry for water resistance, stain resistance and durability. They are known as forever chemicals because they do not break down in the environment and they accumulate in the human body over time. They have now been detected in human blood, in breast milk, in rainwater, and across every environmental medium European scientists have tested.

They are also in our wardrobes. And almost none of it is disclosed.

That is the gap the Forever Label campaign is working to close.

What the science says

The evidence base on PFAS in clothing has hardened sharply in the last few years.

In 2024, a University of Birmingham study confirmed for the first time that PFAS can be absorbed through human skin. The shorter-chain replacements the chemicals industry has been moving to, in response to bans on longer-chain compounds, were found to cross the skin barrier more readily than their predecessors. It is a quiet but important finding. It cuts directly against the long-standing industry argument that PFAS in clothing are inert and pose no real exposure risk.

PFAS exposure has been linked to immune system suppression, hormone disruption, reduced fertility, low infant birth weight and increased risk of certain cancers. None of this is fringe science. It is the position of the European Environment Agency and the European Chemicals Agency, and it sits behind the wave of regulation now moving across the continent.

What the cost looks like

In January 2026, the European Commission published a study titled The cost of PFAS pollution for our society. It estimates that if current levels of PFAS pollution in Europe continue without regulatory action, the cost to society will reach approximately €440 billion by 2050. Treating polluted water alone would cost more than €1 trillion. Tackling PFAS releases at source by 2040 would save €110 billion.

The Commission describes the €440 billion figure as a “conservative estimate”, because it covers only a handful of currently regulated PFAS substances out of the thousands in use. The populations most at risk, the study finds, are newborns, children, people living near contaminated sites, and workers at those sites.

EU Commissioner for Environment Jessika Roswall said in response: “Providing clarity on PFAS with bans for consumer uses is a top priority for both citizens and businesses. Consumers are concerned, and rightly so. This study underlines the urgency to act”

What the PFAS regulations say, and what they don’t

The regulatory picture across Europe is moving quickly. For consumers, it is also almost invisible.

In France, a national ban on the manufacture, import, export and sale of PFAS-containing clothing textiles, footwear, waterproofing agents and cosmetics has been in force since 1 January 2026. The scope extends to all textiles by 2030.

In Denmark, from 1 July 2026, the import and sale of clothing, footwear and waterproofing agents containing PFAS will be prohibited under BEK No. 464, with a total fluorine threshold of 50 mg F/kg.

At EU level, under REACH Annex XVII Entry 79, restrictions on PFHxA in consumer clothing apply from 10 October 2026, and in consumer textiles other than clothing from 10 October 2027. ECHA’s final consultation on the broader universal PFAS restriction closes on 25 May 2026. The Committee for Socio-Economic Analysis opinion is expected by the end of 2026, with a Commission legislative proposal tracking towards 2027.

In the UK, the government published its first PFAS Plan in February 2026, committing to give the public “clear, accessible information” on PFAS content. Two months later, the Environmental Audit Committee went further. It recommended a phased restriction on PFAS in non-essential consumer goods, including school uniforms, from 2027, with standardised labelling required on products that remain on the market in the meantime. It also warned that under UK REACH, Britain is falling behind the EU on PFAS.

This is real progress. But there is a structural problem with all of it. Even where restrictions are in place, they operate at the level of placing products on the market, enforced through compliance regimes between regulators and brands. None of it reaches the consumer at the till.

There is, as of 11 May 2026, no EU or UK rule requiring a clothing label to tell shoppers whether a garment contains PFAS. Existing textile labelling rules require fibre composition. They do not require chemical disclosure. The European Environment Agency has separately warned that consumer textiles carry no obligation for a safety data sheet, weakening traceability once these chemicals enter a finished product.

That is the transparency gap.

What the Forever Label is asking for

The Forever Label campaign calls for mandatory disclosure of PFAS on all clothing and textile products sold in the EU.

The ask is straightforward and applies wherever a consumer encounters a product:

• On a physical hang tag
• On a digital product listing

If a brand has used PFAS in a garment’s manufacture, treatment or finish, the consumer should be able to see it before they buy. The same basic standard of disclosure that already exists for allergens in food, financial risk in investment products and ingredients in cosmetics.

We are not asking governments to do something they have not already accepted in principle. The European Commission has named PFAS as a priority for consumer protection. The UK government’s PFAS Plan accepts that the public should have “clear, accessible information” on PFAS content. The Environmental Audit Committee has recommended standardised labelling. The direction of travel is settled. The label is the missing piece.

Brands have the data. The information already exists inside supply chains, in chemical management systems, in the documentation that moves between mills, finishers and finished-product manufacturers. It is not extracted because nothing requires it to be.

A label changes that. It forces brands to take accountability for the chemistry they are using, and it gives consumers a real choice at the point of sale. It also creates commercial pressure on laggards, because brands that have moved away from PFAS, and there are many, finally have a way of saying so on the product itself.

Why now?

Three things have converged.

Regulation is accelerating, but it is fragmented across France, Denmark, the wider EU and the UK, and it operates well above the consumer’s line of sight.

The science has tightened. Skin absorption is no longer hypothetical. The cost to society is now quantified at hundreds of billions of euros. The most at-risk populations have been named.

And consumer awareness has caught up. People know about PFAS in drinking water. They have begun to ask about PFAS in food packaging and in cosmetics. The question they cannot yet ask, in a shop or on a website, is whether the clothes they are buying for their children contain them too.

The Forever Label made its European debut at the European Commission during Together in Action 2026 in March, where it secured engagement from Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra and Director-General for Climate Action Kurt Vandenberghe. It is now targeting the forthcoming wave of EU legislation on chemical transparency in textiles, and pushing the UK to align rather than drift.

The principle is simple. If something is designed to last forever, the consumer has a right to know it is there.

If it lasts forever, label it.

The Forever Label is an Eco Age campaign calling for mandatory disclosure of PFAS on clothing and textile products sold in the EU, on physical hang tags and on digital product listings.