TLit

I was watching an informational video advocating against artificial turf which is just another source of plastic toxicity in the environment.
https://vimeo.com/803691477
The expert mentioned that tire dust is the leading cause of pfas contamination in the environment. The EPA just set a threshold of 4 parts per trillion for pfas substances:
https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/questions-a...%200.004%20ppt

Are we being contaminated potentially by breathing in tire dust?

JW Fas

Microplastics have infested everything down to the cellular level. I don't think we have a good way out of this mess in the near future.

BTinNYC

4 ppt?!

The MINIMUM DETETION LIMIT is 500 ppt so run and hide.

work4bike

And some are saying that EVs will make the problem worse, since they are a much heavier than conventional cars, therefore quicker tire wear.

https://jalopnik.com/tire-pollution-...oad-1849490346

livedarklions

The EPA limit was for drinking water. I have no idea whether this stuff gets airborne in any significant amount. This would be one component of many in road dust, which contains all sorts of stuff primarily from brake pads and solids coming out of tail pipes. Worth discussing, but really involved questions unlikely to affect your own behavior much.

Bald Paul

I'm taking the tires off my bike and riding on the carbon rims.
Do you think this will affect cornering?

streetsurfer

I believe it was in 1969 that Mason Williams, in his book Mason Williams Reading Matter posed the question of 'what happens to all the worn off tire dust'.

Polaris OBark

That's never stopped you from pontificating before.

livedarklions

Hey liar, I thought you had me on ignore. But then you reply to a post that wasn't aimed at you just to insult me just because you have a grudge.

I'm perfectly comfortable stating I don't know something, while you are perfectly comfortable making things up to make issues cycling-relevant. Nice try.

My only substantive point there was that the EPA standard didn't have much to do with the question being asked, but like I said in your thread, I think someone starting a thread about road dust in a cycling forum would make sense.
Got anything constructive to add to this discussion? Any data on pfas-contaminated dust becoming airborne? Didn't think so. You'd rather say in one thread that I'm not worth bothering with, then go out of your way in another thread to lamely insult me yet again.

Roughstuff

Yup. One of the things I always notice is the smell of overheated brake pads from cars and RVs (not trucks, they know how to use their transmission for braking) as you come down long, steep passes. To be honest I lean on my bicycle brakes a lot myself. Do bike brake pads release nasty stuff?

livedarklions

Seems doubtful as there's just so much less energy involved.

Calsun

A great deal of microplastics are created by the current recycling practices. Less than 5% of plastics is ever recycled and there are good substitutes for 99% of it. The microplastics are found in over 75% of fish tested and in the human body the chemicals leach out and alter normal body functions as many of the chemicals are hormone mimickers.

The good news is the increasing levels of male sterility and so the problem of human caused environmental destruction may fix itself over time.

79pmooney

No. Because the bike simply won't. I tried taking a gentle corner on an aluminum rear rim once. Had to pull the ice tools out of the toolbox; not see since I lived in Ann Arbor. The tire came off completely and jammed in the seat stay while I was successfully making the bend and bleeding speed. With my very light ice grip on the bars, that didn't end well.

Edit: Good thing was that I added just relatively inert aluminum dust to the environment in that experiment. That and skin and blood; a feast for a few microbes.

skidder

I'm almost sure they do as bicycle brake pads do wear down (tires, too) which means the braking material is wearing off and going somewhere. Its not as much as automotive brakes or automotive tires but similar by proportional standards.

CliffordK

Time to return to natural rubber from trees?

livedarklions

They definitely wear, but "proportional" is a problematic word. Motor vehicles are both heavier and faster, and since the kinetic energy increases with the square of the velocity, that's a heck of a lot more friction on the motor vehicle pads.

FBinNY 

Since this is a bike forum, the real question is whether this is a specificly unique issue for cyclists.

The answer is no. We're no worse off than any living, breathing or drinking animal.

For better or worse dust is ubiquitous, and it'd be hard to say which of its components is worse for anyone. However, here we are drifting from rubber tire dust, to micro-plastic pollution, and.....

Not that these aren't real concerns, but as a cyclist, I'm far more concerned about the living, breathing humans I share the road with.

I'm not a moderator, but politely suggest that we should try to stick to specific bike related issues, rather than drift off into environmental, or other issues that are more universal.

cyccommute 

I think you may have misinterpreted what was said in the video. I haven’t watched it but PFAS should not be coming from tires in any form. This article from the EPA says that PFAS wasn’t identified in the tire crumb used in artificial turf. It would be improbable that any PFAS would be used in tires.

Tire dust is the leading cause of microplastics but not PFAS.

cyccommute 

Natural rubber from trees is already used in tires. It makes up about 19% of the total weight of the tire while synthetic rubber makes up about 24% or they are about equal in terms of rubber used in the tire. That’s for car and light truck tires. Heavy duty truck tires have 34% natural rubber/11% synthetic. Natural rubber provides tear and fatigue crack resistance while the synthetic rubber is used for the rolling resistance, traction, and wear characteristics.

Chuck M 

What does this have to do with cycling? The nimrod driving a diesel pickup "rolling coal" on you is going to get you before his tire dust.

TLit

Sorry to hurt anyone's feelings. When I heard that tire dust is the leading cause of microplastics and pfas contamination I was a little concerned on how it would affect human health, through breathing or other sources. Now that people more knowledgeable than myself have chimed in I'll have no qualms about hitting the roads again.

Zara Sp00k

Microplastics have been found at high levels in wilderness areas far from any obvious nearby source, IOW, yes it becomes airborne and is distributed everywhere.

Calsun

Single use plastics are the primary source of microplastics and much can be generated from inefficient plastics products recycling. Only 5% of recyclable plastic is actually recycled into new products and the rest is burned or dumped. I do not buy anything that comes in a single use plastic container. It is better for my personal health and better for the environment.

Micro plastics from tires are a problem but a bigger one is the 99% of the tires end up in a landfill dump. We pay a "disposal fee" for each new tire for our vehicles but that money never goes toward recycling tires but instead ends up in our state's general fund. Twenty years ago there was a major tire recycling plant in my state but it was closed as it did not produce enough of a profit. Capitalism is what is killing the planet, when profits come first and people come second and the environment is not considered at all.

livedarklions

Isn't that likely more related to the burning of the stuff rather than tire dust and the like?

This really seems like a tail wagging the dog thread.

Welshboy

I'll do the same. We can form a splinter group.