NEW After hearing thousands of last words, this hospital chaplain has advice for the living
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
In recent years, scientists have discovered increasing amounts plastic particles in deep oceans, Arctic snow, drinking water, and even breast milk.
How’s that possible?
The answer lies in nearly 350 million tons of plastic being produced globally each year, and about 250,000 tons of plastic littering our oceans.
Precipitation cycles carry microplastics through the air, scattering them across the planet and situating them within natural food chains that comprise ecosystems. As a result, these durable particles have ended up just about everywhere, and scientists believe they’re not going away anytime soon.
Beyond deriving from plastic debris that has degraded into smaller pieces, microplastics have also been prominent in health and beauty products, such as certain cleansers and toothpastes. Microbeads, a type of microplastic, are a form of polyethylene plastic that easily passes through water filtration systems eventually posing a risk to aquatic life.
A recent study led by Stanford University researchers determined that blue whales consume up to 10 million pieces of microplastic daily, largely through the prey that they eat.
Environment International reported that traces of microplastics were discovered in 80 per cent of blood samples taken from 22 anonymized, healthy humans.
And researchers with Universita Politecnica della Marche found microplastics in 26 of 34 samples of breast milk, all collected from a randomized group of women.
But what are the dangers of all these microplastics?
Scientists don’t yet know. At least not fully.
With some plastic specks small enough to infiltrate cells and tissues, some studies have suggested a correlation to certain cancers and various health problems, especially with microplastics leading to levels of chemical toxicity.
As Nature reports, the potential dangers of ingesting microplastics depends on how quickly these particles travel through the human body – a factor that researchers are only beginning to study.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
French police cordoned off the Iranian consulate in Paris on Friday, where a man was threatening to blow himself up, Europe 1 radio and BFM TV.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defences at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Canadian banks that refuse to identify the carbon rebate by name when doing direct deposits are forcing the government to change the law to make them do it, says Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
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 four 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.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.