Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
A collaborative new report has detailed the wide-ranging health impacts of plastics, right from their production all the way to their use and eventual disposal.
An analysis released Tuesday by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Cape Code, Mass., found that along with contributing to climate change, "plastics cause disease, impairment and premature mortality at every stage of their life cycle."
This includes the health and occupational hazards of plastic production, the ingestion and inhalation of microplastic and nanoplastic particles, and their ability to transmit pathogenic microorganisms.
Toxic chemicals added to plastics are also known to increase the risk of miscarriage, obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer, the researchers say.
But while the potential harms from plastics to human health may be news to some, the researchers say scientists have been aware of the negative environmental impacts for decades.
"It's only been a little over 50 years since we've been aware of the presence of plastics throughout the ocean," said John Stegeman, a senior scientist in the Department of Biology at WHOI and one of the lead authors on a section in the report about the impact of plastics on oceans.
Scientists at the Minderoo Foundation, Centre Scientifique de Monaco and Boston College led the report, called The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health.
The researchers say current plastic production, use and disposal are both unsustainable and responsible for "significant harm to human health, the economy and the environment — especially the ocean — as well as deep societal injustices."
Plastics make up approximately four to five per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions across their life cycle, the report says, about the same as all emissions from Russia.
As part of the study, the researchers estimated the cost of plastic production on health to be approximately US$250 billion over a 12-month period, based on data from 2015. The researchers say this is greater than the GDPs of either New Zealand or Finland for that year.
The issue of plastics disproportionately affects vulnerable, low-income minority communities, particularly children, the researchers say.
Along with hundreds of billions dollars more in health-care costs caused by the chemicals in plastics, they say poorer communities, where fast food and discount stores are more common, are exposed to more plastic packaging, products and associated chemicals.
The scientists recommend better monitoring of the effects of plastics and their associated chemicals on marine species, as well as more information on the concentrations of the smallest plastic particles in marine environments.
With a global plastics treaty in the works at the United Nations, the researchers say its focus should extend beyond marine litter to include the entire life cycle of plastics.
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
As some family doctors are retiring and others are moving away from family medicine, there are fewer medical students to take their place.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.