Cap'n TransitSep 28, 2023

Edit to note that this is apparently 78% of microplastics *from specific sources, including textiles and personal care products*, which is only 11% of total microplastics.

So about 8% of total microplastics is directly from car tires.

RT @jme_pew Turns out “microplastics” isn’t descriptive enough. We should be panicking about *tire dust.*

“Seventy-eight percent of ocean microplastics are synthetic tire rubber, according to a report by the Pew Charitable Trust.”

https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemicals

Road Hazard: Evidence Mounts on Toxic Pollution from Tires

Researchers are only beginning to uncover the toxic cocktail of chemicals, microplastics, and heavy metals hidden in car and truck tires. But experts say these tire emissions are a significant source of air and water pollution and may be affecting humans as well as wildlife.

Yale E360
Show threadIncognitimSep 28, 2023

@capntransit
“You’ve got a chemical cocktail in these tires that no one really understands and is kept highly confidential by the tire manufacturers. We struggle to think of another consumer product that is so prevalent in the world, and used by virtually everyone, where there is so little known of what is in them.”

The discovery of 6PPD-q has surprised a lot of researchers, because they've learned that “it’s one of the most toxic substances known, and it seems to be everywhere in the world.”👇

Show threadIncognitimSep 28, 2023

@capntransit
👆 But on the bright side:
The Tyre Collective, a clean-tech startup based in the U.K., has developed an electrostatic plate that affixes to each of a car’s tires: The plates remove up to 60 percent of particles emitted by both tires and brakes, storing them in a cartridge attached to the device. The particles can be reused in numerous other applications, including in new tires.

AND 👇

Uallach MacCreítherSep 28, 2023
Show threadIncognitim
@capntransit
👆 In San Francisco, scientists studying the pollutants in storm runoff found a potential solution: Rain gardens, installed in yards to capture stormwater, were also trapping 96 percent of street litter and 100 percent of black rubbery fragments. In Vancouver, B.C. researchers found that rain gardens could prevent more than 90 percent of 6PPD-q from running off roads and entering salmon-bearing streams."
https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemicals
Road Hazard: Evidence Mounts on Toxic Pollution from Tires

Researchers are only beginning to uncover the toxic cocktail of chemicals, microplastics, and heavy metals hidden in car and truck tires. But experts say these tire emissions are a significant source of air and water pollution and may be affecting humans as well as wildlife.

Yale E360
Sep 28, 2023 at 4:41amWeb