A Norwegian teenager detained after the killing of an Ethiopian-origin worker at an Oslo hostel also planned an attack on a mosque, police said on Thursday.
The 18-year-old was arrested after the killing on Saturday night of Tamima Nibras Juhar, a 34-year-old social worker, at the Oslo hostel where she was a staff member and the suspect was a resident.
The youth is now the subject of a murder and terrorism enquiry after police said he had expressed “opinions hostile to Muslim people”.
The suspect “declared that he had the intention of committing an attack against a mosque at Hoenefoss”, a town about 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of the Norwegian capital, police said in a statement.
“It is important to stress that there are still many indications that the suspect’s capacity to carry out further attacks was limited,” police added.
The youth was said to have acted alone.
He has been identified by media as German national Djordje Wilms, who moved to Norway from Serbia as a child, although police have not confirmed these elements.
Norway has been marked by extreme-right-wing attacks in recent years.
In 2011, neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people by setting off a bomb in Oslo and then opening fire at a youth festival on the island of Utoya.
In 2019, Philip Manshaus opened fire in a mosque in the Oslo region before being overcome.
Every breath people take in their homes or car probably contains significant amounts of microplastics small enough to burrow deep into lungs, new peer-reviewed research finds, bringing into focus a little understood route of exposure and health threat.
The study, published in the journal Plos One, estimates humans can inhale as much as 68,000 tiny plastic particles daily. Previous studies have identified larger pieces of airborne microplastics, but those are not as much of a health threat because they do not hang in the air as long, or move as deep into the pulmonary system.
The smaller bits measure between 1 and 10 micrometers, or about one-seventh the thickness of a human hair, and present more of a health threat because they can more easily be distributed throughout the body. The findings “suggest that the health impacts of microplastic inhalation may be more substantial than we realize”, the authors wrote.
“We were quite surprised about the microplastic levels we found – it was much higher than previously estimated,” said Nadiia Yakovenko, a microplastics researcher and study co-author with France’s University of Toulouse. “The size of the particle is small and well-known to transfer into tissue, which is dangerous because it can enter into the bloodstream and go deep into the respiratory system.”
Microplastics are tiny bits of plastic either intentionally added to consumer goods, or which are products of larger plastics breaking down. The particles contain any number of 16,000 plastic chemicals, of which many, such as BPA, phthalates and Pfas, present serious health risks.
The substance has been found throughout the human body, and can cross the placental and brain barriers. Food and water have been thought to be the main exposure route, but the new research highlights the risks in air pollution. Among other issues, microplastics are linked to chronic pulmonary inflammation, which can lead to lung cancer.
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The concentrations in indoor air are far higher than outdoor air, which the study’s authors say is worrying because humans spend about 90% of the day indoors. Yakovenko said the concentrations indoors are higher because it is an enclosed environment with high levels of plastic in a small area, and there is generally poor ventilation.
The study measured air in multiple rooms throughout several apartments, as well as car cabins as the authors drove. The source of the microplastics in the apartments is thought to be degrading plastic in consumer products, from clothing to kitchen goods to carpets.
Virtually any human activity will kick up the microplastics because the bits are so light. The levels were much higher in an apartment in which two people lived because of virtually any human activity that kicks up the particles. Smaller particles stay suspended in the air longer because they are lighter, Yakovenko said.
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“Any movement of air, vibrations, your movement, if you walk, sit down, stand up, if you open a window – all this is going to resuspend the particles,” Yakovenko said.
Meanwhile, the concentration of plastic in the cars’ air was about four times higher than in the apartments. Because it is a smaller enclosed environment, cars have a higher concentration of plastic, and the ventilation is not good, Yakovenko said. Researchers matched the microplastic material with that used on the dashboard, door handle, steering wheel and other components.
While it is impossible to avoid all microplastics in the air, exposures can be reduced by eliminating as much plastic from the home environment as possible – buy products made of wood, metal and natural fibers or materials.
Hepa air filtration systems have been found to be effective at removing microplastics, and Yakovenko said regular vacuuming with a Hepa vacuum and dusting can help. Reducing levels in the car is more challenging. Opening windows may ventilate a car cabin, but that could potentially allow in microplastic pollution from tires.
A town in Japan is to urge all residents to restrict their smartphone use to two hours a day in an attempt to tackle online addiction and sleep deprivation.
Officials in Toyoake, Aichi prefecture, said the measure would target not only children but also adults, amid growing concern about the physical and psychological toll excessive smartphone use is taking on people of all ages.
The move aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues … including sleep problems,” the mayor, Masafumi Koki said recently.
The Toyoake municipal assembly began debating the non-binding ordinance this week ahead of a vote scheduled for late next month. If the draft passes it will go into effect in October. The measure will not, however, carry penalties for those who exceed the two-hour daily limit.
The draft urges primary school students – those aged six to 12 – and younger children to avoid using smartphones or tablets after 9pm, while teenagers and adults are encouraged to put their devices to one side after 10pm.
The proposal, the first of its kind to apply to all residents, triggered a backlash on social media. Some users condemned it as an attack on individual freedom, while other said the time limit was simply unworkable.
“I understand their intention, but the two-hour limit is impossible,” one user wrote on X. Another said: “Two hours isn’t even enough to read a book or watch a movie (on my smartphone).”
In response, Koki said the time limit was not mandatory and acknowledged that smartphones were “useful and indispensable in daily life”. But he added: “I hope it will be an opportunity for families to think about and discuss the time they spend on smartphones as well as the time of day the devices are used.”
The proposal has not gone down well with many of Toyoake’s 69,000 residents. Officials received 83 phone calls and 44 emails over a four-day period after the announcement, 80% of which were critical of the measure, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
Officials say the proposal was designed to address behavioural problems associated with excessive smartphone use, including truancy among children who can’t bear to leave their phones at home when they go to school.
Koki said there was also anecdotal evidence that adults in the town were glued to their phones when they should be sleeping or spending time with their families.
Toyoake’s initiative reflects growing concern about the negative health impact, especially on children, of hours spent hunched over smartphones and tablets.
In 2020, a region in western Japan passed an ordinance – also non-binding – limiting children to an hour a day of gaming during the week, rising to 90 minutes during the school holidays.
Young Japanese spend an average of just over five hours a day online on weekdays, according to a survey released this year by the Children and Families Agency.
