Oil additive polymer PIB may be responsible for seabird deaths
A sticky substance that has killed hundreds of seabirds could be a polymer often used to improve the performance of lubricating oil, it has emerged.
Professor Steve Rowland, an expert in pollution from Plymouth University, has examined the substance found on one of the guillemots washed up on the south cost of the UK.
He concluded that it is PIB – polyisobutene – which is used in products ranging from adhesives to sealants and even chewing gum. The makeup of the samples he and his team have analysed suggests it was most likely a form used as an additive in lubricating oil.
Rowland, who is funded by the European Research Council to study oil pollution, said: "PIB is used as an additive to lubricants. It looks and feels a little like wallpaper adhesive. When it is caught up in the birds' feathers, it just glues them together."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/06/oil-additive-polymer-seabird-death
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