As a human in the 21st-century industrialized world, there’s a good chance that microplastics are pumping around in your veins(静脉), as indicated by a small first-of-its-kind study in Environment International.

According to a report on the study, scientists from Vrije University Amsterdam recently developed a method to    1     (accurate) measure concentrations of microplastics in human blood for the first time. Just as     2    (suspect) in the past, microplastics from the outside world are ending up in the bloodstream of humans. The team tested the blood of 22 people and concluded that 17 of the samples contained tiny amounts.

“Up to now, we    3    (prove) plastic exists in our bloodstream,” study author Marja Lamoree said. “This dataset is the first of its kind and must be expanded    4     (gain) insight into how widespread plastic is in our bodies, and how    5    (harm) that may be. With this insight, we can determine whether    6    (expose) of our bodies to microplastics poses a threat to health.”

Human bodies are riddled(充斥)with microplastics,    7     wider evidence for the effects of microplastics    8    human health is still inadequate. However, with    9    large number of studies finding that microplastics can be found in our bodies, it’s a question    10    needs some definite answers soon.

3 . During the pandemic, masks and other forms of personal protective equipment (PPE) have become familiar fixtures of our daily lives. They have helped ensure the safety of ourselves and our loved ones. Yet, the improper disposal of PPE has contributed to a hazardous trend — the accumulation of medical waste and the littering of our planet.

Every month, we use nearly 129 billion masks. In a recent report, the United Nations found that from March 2020 to November 2021, around 87,000 tons of used masks and gloves have become non-disposable waste.

This is very worrying, as the waste traps animals and affects the health of our communities. When not properly discarded (丢弃), PPE waste may be blown into local rivers and streams or mistaken by birds as materials for building nests. It is harmful to the environment because most PPE is made from plastic fibers. These fibers can never fully degrade, and instead, break down into microplastics and nanoplastics that linger in our oceans.

At present, many healthcare facilities do not have systems that can deal with the increasing amount of medical waste. As a result, facilities have resorted to burning medical waste. This can put healthcare workers at a higher risk of catching the disease, and communities near landfills (废弃物品填埋场) can be influenced by the poisonous air from the burn pits.

Instead of traditional masks, the United Nations recommends using safe, biodegradable masks or washable cloth masks as an alternative. Sealing used masks and gloves in a separate bag and cutting mask straps before throwing them away can also prevent PPE from ending up in unintended locations, such as sewage systems on streets.

However, it is important to note that masks should not be placed in household recycling bins because most garbage collection systems in cities are unable to dispose of the materials. Ultimately, knowing how to responsibly discard our PPE can help us not only protect the environment but also ourselves and other individuals in our community.

4 . Friday night lights are good for the game, but they may be bad for biodiversity.

According to a study published Friday in the journal Animal Conservation, bright stadium lighting could affect the feeding habits of bats. Insects swarm (涌往) to these lights in large numbers, creating a competitive advantage for bat species who aren’t afraid of humans and human structures. This could impact local ecosystems and reduce biodiversity.

For most humans, there simply isn’t enough daylight hours—we have been developing new ways to light the night since we first controlled and used fire. But researchers say our need for continuous visibility can have serious consequences for neighboring species.

Light pollution has been linked to some ecosystem damage. Baby turtles, for example, naturally use the light of the moon to travel towards the open ocean. But constant and poorly designed artificial lighting can affect their sense of direction, obviously disturbing their life cycles.

“Increasing light pollution is a major feature of global change that’s caused by humans, and it is a potential threat to biodiversity,” co-author M. Corrie Schoeman said in a press release.

Dr Schoeman, a professor of biology at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, conducted field experiments to determine how stadium lighting affected bat behaviors. He found that “urban exploiter” bats were drawn to hunt near bright lights, while “urban avoider” bats were not. Exploiter species are able to take advantage of human resources, such as artificial light. Avoider species, by comparison, tend to avoid humans and human structures.

But it’s hardly survival of the fittest. This man-made, ecological scale-tipping could result in the decline or loss of avoider species. And that, in turn, could threaten the balance of local ecosystems.

Luckily, light pollution is considered an “easy fix” compared to other forms of pollution. Smart lighting design— hooded (带罩的) streetlamps，motion-sensitive residential lights (触控住宅用灯), and better controls to remove unnecessary brightness—can obviously reduce light pollution. As for stadium lights, earlier games could do a lot of good, both for bats and for our ecosystems as a whole.

6 . It’s becoming increasingly difficult to see stars in the night sky from cities and it’s getting worse because of the spread of LED lighting, say scientists.

New research led by the University of Exeter shows that light pollution has increased by 49% over 25 years globally, a number that only includes light visible to satellites. However, the researchers suggest that the actual increase in light pollution could be up to 270% globally and as much as 400% in some areas.

Light pollution can impact the natural environment and is probably responsible for the huge drop in insect populations. A world without insects is a world without humans.

“The global spread of man-made light is destroying the natural night-time environment,” said Dr Alejandro Sanchez de Miguel. “This study provides clear evidence about how bad a global problem light pollution has become, and that it is continuing to get worse, and probably at a faster and faster rate.”

“Despite what people think, LED lighting, while providing some energy savings, has increased light pollution and also has an impact on insects,” said Dr Sanchez de Miguel. The blue light from LEDs goes undetected by satellite sensors, but increases visible light that limits astronomical observations.

However, that’s not the whole story. “To take the UK as an example, if you take no notice of the effect of LED use, you get a false impression that light pollution has recently diminished,” said Dr Sanchez de Miguel. “However, correcting for this effect shows it has really increased, and probably very greatly.”

“Over the past 25 years, the transition to LED lighting has seen rapid increases in light pollution globally,” said Ruskin Hartley, Executive Director of the International Dark-Sky Association. “Without united action to reduce light pollution, the impact on the natural environment will increase, further threatening biodiversity, wasting energy, and meaning a whole generation will grow up in the twilight.”

7 . Merle Liivand was born in Estonia. As a child, she had health problems, and began swimming to help her lungs get stronger. She was soon taking part in open water swimming contests, sometimes even in icy water. In 2017 and 2019, she represented Estonia at the World Aquatics Championships.

Eleven years ago, Ms. Merle moved to Miami, Florida. In one training session, she nearly wound up swallowing some plastic floating in the sea. That experience made her think of all the sea animals who faced similar pollution every day. She began swimming with a special single swimming fin(鳍状物) attached to both of her feet. This rubbery “monofin” allows her to swim by kicking both of her legs together. “Swimming with the monofin without using my arms is similar to how dolphins and sea animals swim,” says Ms. Merle. She believes that swimming with a monofin “sends a bigger message”.

Ms. Merle first set the world record for swimming with a monofin in 2019, when she swam 10 kilometers off the coast of California. In 2020, she broke the record again by swimming 20. 6 kilometers, this time in Miami, Florida.

Last year, she set a new Guinness World Record by swimming 30 kilometers, again in Florida. Even though it took her 9 hours and 19 minutes to set that record, Ms. Merle says she knew she could go farther. So for the last year, Ms. Merle has been getting up at 4 every morning, putting on her monofin and going swimming.

On May 7, Ms. Merle broke the record once more, this time swimming the length of a full marathon. It took her 11 hours and 54 seconds to swim 42.2 kilometers.

To keep her energy up, a friend followed her in a kayak and gave her food and water from time to time. Along the way, Ms. Merle picked up all the trash she found and put it in the kayak. By the end of her marathon, the kayak held three bags full of trash.