Plumes of purple smoke fill parts of Maine sky for two days in a row. What’s going on?

It’s not promo for the Barbie movie, or a large-scale gender reveal in Maine — the purple-pink smoke seen billowing from the stacks of an energy plant has another explanation.

Residents of Portland, Maine, noticed the colorful smoke the morning of Thursday, Aug. 3, according to WGME.

Kevin Roche, CEO of ecomaine, told WMTW the issue was corrected within two-and-a-half hours, and the plant resumed operations.

“This was probably caused by a larger than normal amount of iodine present in the waste stream all at once,” Roche said.

The waste-to-energy operation burns trash to generate electricity, according to its website, and iodine turns purple when it’s burned.

However, the purple plumes painted Portland’s sky again on Friday, Aug. 4. Many Facebook users made jokes along the lines of, “Congratulations, it’s a girl!”

Others were concerned about the potential side effects of the vapor. One user wrote, “Put on your hazmat suits my fellow Mainers!”

Someone likened the vapor to “hocus pocus,” while another guessed, “The next Pope will be a girl???”

McClatchy News reached out to ecomaine and did not receive a response.

Iodine vapor can irritate the eyes, skin and respiratory tract, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The maximum safe level of exposure under OSHA guidelines for iodine is 0.1 ppm. It’s unknown how much iodine was emitted from the waste burning.

In a statement obtained by WMTW, ecomaine said, “While vaporized iodine can pose health risks if directly inhaled, it is very unlikely anyone had direct exposure due to the relatively short time the incident occurred and its location.”

Billed as a sustainable waste management nonprofit, ecomaine is owned by 20 communities. Its website says “ecomaine is southern Maine’s leader in recycling and waste-to-energy operations, serving about a third of the state’s population.”

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