World's oldest person dies in Japan at 119

Yahoo – AFP, 25 April 2022 

Kane Tanaka was recognised as the world's oldest person in 2019 (AFP/JIJI
PRESS) (JIJI PRESS)

A Japanese woman certified the world's oldest person has died at the age of 119, local officials said Monday. 

Kane Tanaka was born January 2, 1903, in the southwestern Fukuoka region of Japan, the same year the Wright brothers flew for the first time and Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. 

Tanaka was in relatively good health until recently and lived at a nursing home, where she enjoyed board games, solving maths problems, soda and chocolate. 

In her younger years, Tanaka ran various businesses including a noodle shop and a rice cake store. She married Hideo Tanaka a century ago in 1922, giving birth to four children and adopting a fifth. 

She had planned to use a wheelchair to take part in the torch relay for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but the pandemic prevented her from doing so. 

When the Guinness World Records recognised her as the oldest person alive in 2019, she was asked what moment she was the most happy in life. Her answer: "Now." 

Her daily routine was described at the time as including a 6:00 am wake-up, and afternoons spent studying mathematics and practising calligraphy. 

"One of Kane's favourite pastimes is a game of Othello and she's become an expert at the classic board game, often beating rest-home staff," Guinness said. 

Local governor Seitaro Hattori hailed Tanaka's life after she passed away on April 19. 

"I was looking forward to seeing Kane-san on this year's Respect for the Aged Day (a national holiday in September) and celebrating together with her favorite soda and chocolate," he said in a statement on Monday. 

"I am extremely saddened by the news." 

Japan has the world's most elderly population, according to World Bank data, with around 28 percent aged 65 or over. 

The oldest-ever living person verified by Guinness was Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment, who died aged 122 years and 164 days in 1997.

Cosmetics and personal care products are riddled with microplastics

DutchNews, April 7, 2022 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Personal care and cosmetic products are riddled with plastic ingredients, with nine in 10 popular brands using them, according to research by the Netherlands’ based Plastic Soup Foundation. 

The EU is poised to take steps to control the unnecessary use of microplastics but most will be exempt, particularly those used by the cosmetics industry, the organisation says in a new report. 

The campaign group looked at the ingredients in 7,704 cosmetic and personal care items from the 10 most popular European brands. 

Of them, 87% contained microplastics, defined as ‘all possible synthetic polymers, whether added in solid, liquid, semi-liquid or water-soluble form, as well as nanoplastics and biodegradable plastics’. 

The foundation said it approached L’Oreal, Beiersdorf, Procter & Gamble and Unilever to find out about their current and future plastic policies.

‘All four have indicated that they want to do more against plastic pollution, but they focus only on microplastics in solid form. They follow the limited definition of microplastics as proposed by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). 

The ECHA says every minute, over seven kilos of microplastics from cosmetics and personal care products end up in the European environment, but this would be 25 times higher using the wider Plastic Soup definition, the campaign group said. 

‘We want to urge the cosmetics industry to look beyond the proposed definition by ECHA, to ensure the environmental and human health safety of the products they bring on the market,’ the campaign group said. 

‘We want to encourage consumers to demand transparency from brands and accountability for the ingredients these brands put into our personal care and cosmetic products.’ 

Two weeks ago, researchers at Amsterdam’s VU university reported finding microplastics in human blood for the first time.