Bridgestone Corporation has developed a Tire and Road Wear Particles (TRWP) vehicle collection method aimed at understanding the environmental impact of TRWP. TRWP are the result of friction between the tire and the road surface, which is essential to ensuring a safe, comfortable journey. It consists of a mixture of... Read more →

A study by the University of Southampton has found microscopic particles emitted from certain types of commonly fitted brake pads can be more toxic than those found in diesel vehicle exhaust. The open-access research, published in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology, shows that a higher concentration of copper in... Read more →

The German Federal Environment Agency estimates that the contact of tires with the road surface produces abrasion particles amounting to at least 100,000 tons per year. This corresponds to approximately one-third of the microplastic emissions released every year in Germany. Due to their higher weight, vehicles with an electric drive... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency is issuing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) under Section 6 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to gather information on the potential risks associated with N-(1,3-Dimethylbutyl)-N′-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD) and its transformation product, 6PPD-quinone. (Earlier post.) In August 2023, the Yurok Tribe, the Port... Read more →

Made from a mixture of natural and synthetic rubber and plastic polymers, including other chemical components, tires represent a significant source of non-exhaust emissions. Tire abrasion is produced when there is friction with the road surface, for example when vehicles turn, accelerate or brake. Small particles break off from tires... Read more →

Plastic microparticles released into the environment from common road tires should be treated as a “high concern” pollutant, that may exceed chronic safety limits in some heavily contaminated environments, new research has shown. A team of researchers from the University of Plymouth and the University of Exeter in the UK... Read more →

In an open letter, Nick Molden, CEO, Emissions Analytics and Dr Andreas Mayer, Chairman of the Scientific Committee, VERT Association, call on European regulators to apply the same approach they have applied to the tailpipe to the growing issue of tire emissions. The authors urge the inclusion of particle mass,... Read more →

Based on comparison tests between a Tesla Model Y and Kia Niro full hybrid, independent emissions testing company Emissions Analytics (earlier post) is suggesting that at present full hybrids are the win-win, do-no-harm option for decarbonizing transportation, while BEVs are a win-lose option, hampered by a “vexatious” trade-off between CO2... Read more →

A new briefing paper from Imperial College London estimates that in 2021, 52% of all small particle pollution from road transport came from tires and brakes. The researchers, from Imperial College London’s Transition to Zero Pollution (TZP) initiative, warn that even though electric vehicles remove the problem of fuel emissions,... Read more →

The Health Effects Institute (HEI) has launched two new studies funded under RFA 21-1, Quantifying Real-World Impacts of Non-Tailpipe Particulate Matter Emissions. Emissions from automobile exhaust systems have decreased in recent years due to the introduction of cleaner fuels and new control technologies on internal combustion engines, as well as... Read more →

Researchers at the University of Vienna (Austria) have demonstrated that tire wear particle (TWP)-derived compounds are readily taken up by lettuce with measured maximum leaf concentrations between ∼0.75 for N-phenyl-N′-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD) and 20 μg g–1 for hexamethoxymethyl melamine (HMMM). In an open-access paper in the ACS journal Environmental Science &... Read more →

Argonne National Laboratory will host a public webinar on the challenges of recycling Li-ion batteries and possible solutions. Qiang Dai, sustainability analyst at Argonne, will show how anyone can measure the costs of recycling lithium-ion batteries and how the process affects the environment with Argonne’s free EverBatt tool. EverBatt is... Read more →

In early 2020, UK-based independent testing firm Emissions Analytics published a study claiming that tire particulate wear emissions were 1,000 times worse than exhaust emissions (earlier post). Since that study, which was transparently designed to quantify the worst-case tire emissions under legal driving, Emissions Analytics has been testing and analyzing... Read more →

The Audi Environmental Foundation is developing filters for urban runoff in conjunction with the Technical University of Berlin (TUB). The filters prevent tire wear particles and other environmentally harmful substances from being washed into sewers and bodies of water along with rainwater. Initial field and lab tests have now demonstrated... Read more →

Every time it rains, fish living downstream of storm drains are exposed to pollutants, including the tire-derived compound 6PPD-quinone, in the runoff. Recently, this substance has been linked to massive die-offs of coho salmon across the US West Coast. Now, researchers in Canada report that exposure to 6PPD-quinone at environmentally... Read more →