Hurricane Larry dumped millions of microplastic particles on Newfoundland and Labrador when it hit in 2021 ? microplastics that all originated from the Atlantic Ocean, researchers from Dalhousie University found. An outdoor seating area of Erin’s Pub on Water Street was demolished after Hurricane Larry crossed over Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula in the early morning hours, in St. John’s, on Sept. 11, 2021.
When hurricane Larry made landfall in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2021, the powerful storm brought heavy rain and wind across the province — and millions of microplastic particles originating from the Atlantic Ocean, researchers from Dalhousie University have found.
“So we have a saying … it’s raining cats and dogs,” Tony Walker, a professor in Dalhousie’s school for resource and environmental studies, said in an interview. “But now it’s raining cats and dogs and microplastics.”
Larry offered researchers a unique opportunity because the hurricane never flew over land between its formation off the western coast of Africa and its landfall in Canada. The storm, however, passed through a patch of the North Atlantic where thousands of tonnes of rubbish accumulate.
“What was important about this hurricane is typically hurricanes kind of pass through the Caribbean and then come up through Florida and the United States, and they probably would have also contained microplastics, but it’s really hard to determine whether those microplastics came from land-based sources of plastic or the ocean,” Walker said.
“Larry never made landfall … so the only place those microplastics could have come from was the North Atlantic garbage patch.”
As soon as the path of the storm became clear, two students, Anna Ryan and Amber LeBlanc, moved quickly to collect rainwater from Larry. They used a cylindrical glass container to avoid contaminating the sample with more plastic — and even wore cotton clothing, Walker said.
The storm made landfall near Great Bona Cove as a Category 1 hurricane on Sept. 11, 2021, with winds of 130 kilometres per hour and gusts more than 180 km/h.
The researchers collected rainwater samples between Sept. 9 and Sept. 12 of that year. A new sample was taken every six hours, for a total of eleven. They collected, on average, 20,000 microplastic particles per square metre per day before and after Larry’s passing. At the height of the storm, that number jumped significantly to nearly 115,000 particles per square metre per day.
“So during the storm, it was actually five times higher,” Walker said.
Because of Larry’s trajectory — and all the precautions the researchers took — Walker said he’s confident the microplastics could only have come from the waste vortex in the Ocean and not from North America.
Newfoundland and Labrador is approximately 405,000 square kilometres; the approximately 115,000 microplastic particles per square metre when Larry was at its strongest represents an astronomical amount of pollution.
Microplastic particles are less than five millimetres long, so small that they are impossible to discern with the naked eye. They come from the degradation of other, larger plastic products and have been detected in every environment on the planet.
The risk they pose to the health of humans, animals and ecosystems remains poorly understood. The researchers point out, for example, that these particles are small enough to contaminate groundwater.
Additionally, the study notes that “because of their small size and because they are already airborne, microplastics can enter organisms, including humans, through respiration, which has health consequences that are still largely unknown.”
Walker said it’s important for the public to recognize how pervasive microplastic pollution is.
“I think it’s important now for members of the public to recognize that microplastic pollution is everywhere,” Walker said. “Knowledge is really important because we can then help change decision-makers and give them the power to actually make really important decisions to curb plastic production.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
