Fascinating. Secondary literature (and presumably press reporting and social media) have been over-estimating the contribution of tyre wear to air pollution. Good news (though all that tyre rubber must still end up somewhere in the environment).
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00792#
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00792#
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@carbonbrief.org @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org @aukehoekstra.bsky.social
Some of the shoulders along busy roads where I live are black with a layer of small bits that presumably came from cars.
I do worry about possible effects on water quality. It is an awful lot of ground up material, so even small amounts of leaching would add up in a hurry.