Research conducted by students at Bangor University, working with Friends of the Earth, has attracted global media attention.
As mentioned in the last issue of Seren, Bangor University was commissioned by the environmental organization, to measure the amount of plastics and microplastics in British lakes and rivers- and what they found was widely reported in print and broadcast media across Britain and beyond.
Luke Frears, 22 and Jedd Owens, 23 analysed all the water samples, filtering them and counting the microplastic particles in the samples for the report, they also demonstrated that using fluorescence during microscope analysis is an efficient way to visually identify microplastics.
The results of the research were astonishing with microplastics being present in various samples taken across the UK. This study has caused outcry across the UK to reduce plastic use and the work by the Bangor Students being posted across various media platforms. It’s fantastic to see work done at our university gain such global recognition.