The NSA database included both “upstream” and “downstream” (better known as PRISM) surveillance of electronic communications collected without a warrant under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In some cases, the database swept up info about American citizens. The FISA court, under U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, found tens of thousands of improper searches by the FBI in 2017 and 2018. For instance, one FBI contractor ran a query to look for information on himself, other FBI personnel and his relatives. The improper searches violated the requirements of the Fourth Amendment.

As The Wall Street Journal points out, US spying activities have “generally withstood legal challenge or review.” In 2017, US intelligence agencies pushed to permanently extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — the act that allows the federal government to monitor the communications of non-US citizens on foreign soil who are communicating with Americans in the US on matters of national security. In 2018, President Trump authorized another six years of data collection, and according to a NSA transparency report, warrantless searches of Americans’ data spiked 28 percent in 2018. According to FISC, the FBI has amended its querying practices, and FISC has deemed them sufficient.

The study estimates that annual microplastic consumption ranges from 39,000 to 52,000 particles, from food sources alone. When you factor in the microplastics Americans inhale, the numbers jump to 74,000 and 121,000. Americans who drink exclusively from plastic water bottles may be ingesting an additional 90,000 microplastics annually, which at the very least should be another reason to stop buying plastic water bottles. The researchers admit these are rough estimates, but if anything, they are “likely drastic underestimates.”

A team of biologists from the University of Victoria in Canada conducted the study. They looked at microplastics in commonly consumed foods — seafood, sugars, salts, honey — as well as alcohol, tap water, bottled water and urban air. The researchers note that the microplastic content of poultry, beef, dairy, grains and vegetables has not been studied. We don’t know how much plastic we might ingest from food packaging, either.

According to the study, microplastics are “ubiquitous across ecosystems.” We knew the ocean was full of plastic, but the researchers suggests our bodies might also be packed with plastic. While there is potential for microplastics to enter human tissue — which might cause an immune response or release toxic chemicals into the body — we don’t fully understand how microplastics impact humans, at least not yet.