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Are the two issues directly comparable? A large volume of tire particles settle near the road, going into the soil or washing into waterways for us to drink. Ex
by ip26 4y ago
Are the two issues directly comparable? A large volume of tire particles settle near the road, going into the soil or washing into waterways for us to drink. Exhaust particles stay suspended in the air for a long time & blow far and wide for us to breathe. Both matter, both impact health, but we can't fix bad air quality by fixing tires.
- jeffbee 4y agoWhy do you believe this? It doesn't make any physical sense. Tire and resuspended road dust are in the 1-10µm range and they can fly as high and as far and for as long as a same-sized particle from exhaust.
- ip26 4y ago1-10µm is a size, not a mass or chemical property. Maybe tire PM2.5 stays aloft the same amount of time as smoke PM2.5, but I don't see why that is a given. The press on the subject also annoyingly sidesteps a direct comparison. For example, you can read that tires product 2000x the particle emissions as tailpipes, and lots of ultrafines. Notice that statement does not tell you anything about the relative difference in ultrafine production.
- jeffbee 4y agoThe media coverage on this is terrible but that is because the media is staffed full of people who did not study hard sciences. There's nothing wrong with the research on this topic and there is tons of it.