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It is presented annually to a woman from a racialized or Indigenous community who is interested in pursuing a career in policing with the Ottawa Police Service, following a period of post-secondary study.

The parents of a three-year-old girl from Thornhill, Ont., want it to be legal for them to treat their daughter's epilepsy with an oil made from marijuana.

Canada's finance minister insists low- and middle-income families will see two-thirds of the benefits from the government's contentious multibillion-dollar tableau of family-friendly measures. By that measure, Joe Oliver is suggesting families with annual incomes as high as $120,000 qualify as middle class.

Crystalline silica, hydrofluoric acid and formaldehyde. Those are just three of the dozens of air toxic chemicals that oil companies have used thousands of times in southern California in just the past year.

The data has come to light thanks to new reporting rules adopted in 2013 by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which now requires oil and gas well operators to disclose the chemicals they use in oil and gas operations. According to a recently released analysis of the first year’s worth of reported data, oil companies used 44 different air toxic chemicals more than 5,000 times in Los Angeles and Orange counties during the past 12 months. Crystalline silica, hydrofluoric acid and formaldehyde — all of which are considered harmful to human health — were among the most frequently used. Since reporting began in June 2013, companies have reported the use of more than 45 million pounds of air toxics at almost 500 fracking, acidizing and gravel packing operations in the two California counties. (Acidizing is the process of injecting a combination of acids and chemicals underground to clean a well or dissolve rock; gravel packing is a process of placing chemical-filled gravel into the well hole to act as a filter.)

“We understand the terrible health impacts caused by the chemicals being used to extract oil in Los Angeles and Orange counties,” said Angela Johnson Meszaros, general counsel at Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, in a news release. “Given the massive volume of chemicals being used so close to where people live, work and go to school, there is significant likelihood that people will be harmed by these chemicals. We routinely see reports of leaks, accidents and injury associated with oil extraction.”

Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, along with the Center for Biological Diversity, Communities for a Better Environment and the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, conducted the chemical data analysis. Here are just a few of the unsettling findings as well as some of the health risks associated with the chemicals.

According to the analysis, oil and gas well operators used:

• more than 25 million pounds of crystalline silica, which is known to be harmful to skin, eyes, respiratory system, immune system and kidneys;

• more than 166,000 pounds of methanol, an endocrine disruptor and developmental inhibitor;

• more than 32,000 pounds of formaldehyde, which is harmful to skin, eyes, sensory organs, brain and nervous systems, and reproductive system;

• more than 69,000 pounds of 2-butoxy ethanol, which is harmful to a number of organs and systems, and is linked to liver cancer and adrenal tumors; and

• more than 5 million pounds of hydrofluoric acid, which is harmful to the reproductive and cardiovascular systems and can cause genetic mutations.

Moreover, the analysis reported that about 265 fracking, acidizing and gravel packing events happened within 1,500 feet of at least one hospital, preschool or residence. Children and the elderly may be particularly susceptible to air toxics. The analysis states:

These air toxics, which can be emitted before, during and after well stimulation, are endangering the health of nearby residents. In Los Angeles, the AllenCo oil facility has been cited for multiple air emission violations. The pollution has been linked to nosebleeds, headaches, breathing trouble and nausea suffered by nearby residents, leading to hundreds of complaints to (the South Coast Air Quality Management District). After AllenCo was forced to halt operations, the Los Angeles Times revealed that reports of illnesses had diminished significantly. Whether or not well stimulation is used, oil and gas operations are responsible for emitting air toxics throughout the process.

While the numbers in the analysis are worrisome on their own, they probably don’t account for all the chemicals being released. The analysis reported that operators withheld information in 5,050 instances. In claiming that some of the disclosures would jeopardize trade secrets, the companies only submitted vague descriptions to the air quality agency, such as “lubricant” or “mixture.”

“The pervasive and persistent use of these chemicals threatens to contaminate local air quality and put communities’ health and safety at risk,” the analysis concluded. “The reporting requirements have proven the need for immediate action to protect the public.”

To read the full analysis, click here. For some great coverage of this topic and the southern California data, check out this article from reporter Katie Rucke at MintPress News.

Kim Krisberg is a freelance public health writer living in Austin, Texas, and has been writing about public health for more than a decade.

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You’ve probably heard that diabetes is a huge and growing problem—affecting one in every 19 people on the planet. But you may not be familiar with the daily struggle that many people with diabetes face as they try to keep their blood sugar levels under control. Uncontrolled blood sugar puts people at risk for a range of dangerous complications, some short-term and others longer term, including damage to the eyes, kidneys and heart. A friend of ours told us she worries about her mom, who once passed out from low blood sugar and drove her car off the road.

Many people I’ve talked to say managing their diabetes is like having a part-time job. Glucose levels change frequently with normal activity like exercising or eating or even sweating. Sudden spikes or precipitous drops are dangerous and not uncommon, requiring round-the-clock monitoring. Although some people wear glucose monitors with a glucose sensor embedded under their skin, all people with diabetes must still prick their finger and test drops of blood throughout the day. It’s disruptive, and it’s painful. And, as a result, many people with diabetes check their blood glucose less often than they should.

Over the years, many scientists have investigated various body fluids—such as tears—in the hopes of finding an easier way for people to track their glucose levels. But as you can imagine, tears are hard to collect and study. At Google[x], we wondered if miniaturized electronics—think: chips and sensors so small they look like bits of glitter, and an antenna thinner than a human hair—might be a way to crack the mystery of tear glucose and measure it with greater accuracy.
We’re now testing a smart contact lens that’s built to measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor that are embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material. We’re testing prototypes that can generate a reading once per second. We’re also investigating the potential for this to serve as an early warning for the wearer, so we’re exploring integrating tiny LED lights that could light up to indicate that glucose levels have crossed above or below certain thresholds. It’s still early days for this technology, but we’ve completed multiple clinical research studies which are helping to refine our prototype. We hope this could someday lead to a new way for people with diabetes to manage their disease.

We’re in discussions with the FDA, but there’s still a lot more work to do to turn this technology into a system that people can use. We’re not going to do this alone: we plan to look for partners who are experts in bringing products like this to market. These partners will use our technology for a smart contact lens and develop apps that would make the measurements available to the wearer and their doctor. We’ve always said that we’d seek out projects that seem a bit speculative or strange, and at a time when the International Diabetes Federation (PDF) is declaring that the world is “losing the battle” against diabetes, we thought this project was worth a shot.

Posted by Brian Otis and Babak Parviz, project co-founders

Mexican riot police have cracked down on the strongest challenge yet to President Enrique Pena Nieto's reform program, sweeping thousands of striking teachers out of Mexico City's main square with tear gas and water cannons.

The astronaut whose helmet flooded during a spacewalk says he now knows what it feels like to be a goldfish in a bowl.

Last month's severe flooding in southern Alberta could increase the chances of finding unearthed fossils and dinosaur bones.

They always say they won’t spill the oil. Then they spill the oil. And we seem to not mind. We should mind

From here, this:

This was a slow month for oil spills, compared to those moments when a tanker hits the rocks or a retreating army opens the spigots.