BDN features UMaine research in article about blue tarps and microplastics
The Bangor Daily News featured a UMaine student research study that found blue plastic tarp microplastics are affecting snails and slugs on Maine farms. Rachel White, a Ph.D. student in ecology and environmental sciences, created a synthetic stomach acid that dissolves the gastropods to look at parasites, but also found microplastics, particularly blue fibers like those found in blue tarps. “We were seeing small microplastics that really piqued our interest. They have been ingesting these plastics,” White told the BDN. Anne Lichtenwalner, White’s advisor and director of the university’s veterinary diagnostic laboratory, said, “I was surprised and horrified. The process of seeing [the plastics] involved surviving an artificial stomach acid, which suggests they go through the digestive system.” Z107.3 and Q106.5 shared the BDN report.