What Happens To Rubber That Wears Off Auto Tires

Science Daily ^ | 11-28-2002

[blam]

Date: 11/28/2002

What Happens To Rubber That Wears Off Auto Tires?

Alison J. Draper, an assistant professor of chemistry at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa., is doing research where the rubber meets the road -- literally. She's investigating the environmental and health impacts of automobile tire wear particles. As automobile tires move along a road, tiny particles are worn off, and can end up in the air and in nearby waterways. Draper previously did research on diesel exhaust, but says that tire rubber is "much more interesting chemically," containing heavy metals like zinc and cadmium, hydrocarbons, latex, and sulfur-containing compounds.

Draper's research is not yet complete. But so far her findings include preliminary but solid evidence that tire wear particles may have negative impacts on small organisms in water habitats. Airborne tire particles may also aggravate respiratory problems in human beings (such as asthma or allergies).

Draper's method has been to make up clean samples of water like those inhabited by several kinds of aquatic organisms -- algae, duckweed, daphnia (water fleas), fathead minnows, and snails -- and under controlled laboratory conditions, put finely ground tire particles into the samples. By letting the particles remain in the water for 10 days and then filtering them out, she created a "leachate" that included substances in the tire rubber. All the organisms exposed to the leachate died, and the algae died fairly quickly.

Draper is also working on determining the levels of tire rubber chemicals in water that cause sub-lethal effects, such as reproductive problems in the snails and pre-cancerous lesions in the minnows. Draper's work so far has been performed in a lab, under controlled conditions, but she says there's "good evidence" that tire rubber may have similar effects on similar organisms living in real waterways along real roadways.

An environmental chemist with a doctorate in toxicology (University of Kansas Medical Center, 1996), Draper is also the Clare Boothe Luce Professor of Environmental Chemistry at Bucknell. She says there's good evidence from the chemistry of tire rubber that it also has the potential to cause asthmatic and/or allergic-type reactions. "We're only at the very beginning of that investigation. But, given the chemicals in tire rubber and given how readily they leach out, we can expect a respiratory response [in human beings]," she says. "It depends on the levels of the chemicals and the level of exposure -- certain people will be more susceptible than others."

Draper's research started humbly, with an old tire that came from her father's 1981 Chevrolet Malibu and was already on the refuse heap. "My father was about to throw it out," Draper recalls, "and I said, 'Wait!' " Now she uses tire tread particles supplied by a company in Mississippi, already ground up, and consisting of mixed tire brands.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the home state:

[Thebaddog]

Am I understanding that the scientestette put powdered tires in the water with the pond scum and that is a basis for an environmental alarm? What do you think the outcome would be if raw gasoline was put in the water? And taa-daa, I'm a scientist too!

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Conestoga wagons? You must be kidding. Their large wheels can cause severe rutting, destroying sensitive micro-environments and endangering bio-diversity.

Even walking by humans threatens a large variety of plant and animal life.

No, the only responsible solution is for people to remain home, in bed, trying to move as little as possible.

[VMI70]

"I've always wondered, too. I also wonder if this could be contributing to our Monterey pine tree die-off, among other native plants, such as the California oak."

"Nope, this is not the cause of those problems. You all have some sort of blight out there..."

Yeah, liberals and illegal aliens

[Willie Green]

I knew a Dr. Alan B. Draper when I was at Penn State many years ago.
I thought there might be a chance relationship since Bucknell is a hop, skip and a jump away. But a web search shows that Dr. Alison didn't do any undergrad work at Happy Valley, so there probably isn't any relationship.

That's really quite unfortunate.
Dr. Alan Draper likely would have enjoyed researching the use of used tire rubber as a sand-binding agent for molds used in foundrys.
I wonder if he's still alive?
He was already getting up in years when I was there, a fine old gentleman.

[blam]

"I wonder how that pavement knows where it is..."

Smart streets?

[perfect stranger]

This scares me. I need to get new tires for my car, but I refuse to give in to the capitalistic monoply that believes we all need a comfortable and well handling car.

You think rubber grows on trees? LOL

[No Truce With Kings]

The question is whether the rubber particles actually get into the water. Another source I read (cannot find it right now) said that rubber -- a volitile -- breaks down when hit by sunshine. If true that means tire dust quickly ceases to be rubber, and probably breaks down into simple hydrocarbons and ammonias. Since I have seen plenty of algae-covered ponds next to roads, empirically I would tend to believe this true.

[VMI70]

There was an article I read around a year and a half ago addressing this very subject. The author said that it essentially "disappears", breaking down into elemental form.
If you think about it, we would have a whole heap of rubber around our roads if it didn't.

[ffrancone]

It's used to make Socialists' souls.

LOL

[Captainpaintball]

I have always wanted to know this... maybe you can answer this for me...

WHY IS THE MICHELIN MAN WHITE???

[VMI70]

Damn--you beat me to it, but obviously you are well read and quicker on the keyboard.

[struwwelpeter]

I used to work for a colonel who was gifted at creating malapropisms and misquotes. We'd call these: "Heilisms" after the colonel in question.

My favorite was "Now that's where the rubber eats the road." Other classic Heilisms were:

"I told him to cease and exist"
"Now that's the stove calling the kettle a teapot"
"It takes two to get tangled"
"When rape is inevitable, it's best to go lay down"

Ah, the joys of the Clintonian military.

[struwwelpeter]

When I lived in Germany, I noticed that new tires came sealed in some kind of plastic to keep them from getting scuffed.

At the prices they paid, I'd expect virgin Reifen too.

[truth_seeker]

Inventors should start on a tire-dust-collector contraption, which when properly fitted around the wheel wells, will:

Capture a majority of the damaging substance, for recycling.

Provide employment for another sub-industry.

Give liberals (and conservatives) yet another issue, to differ on.

I favor the contraption, to walking, or to wooden wheels (steel wheels being to hard on the roadway).

So will a scientist please suggest where such a contraption would best function, on the vehicle? Is it possible that something akin to mudflaps, could catch most of the dust-spin-off?

[spoiler2]

Can you imagine enviromentalists calling for legislation to ban racing's popular smokey donut celebrations?

I can see real legal problems here for drag racers, too, if this nutball-science stuff gains any traction!

[csvset]

Yabba-dabba-do!

[CFC__VRWC]

WHY IS THE MICHELIN MAN WHITE???

Michelin is a French company, isn't it? We should pose this question enmasse to France, and then sit back and enjoy the show as the sniveling little socialist appeasers work themselves up into yet another PC-induced frenzy!

[Nick Danger]

Tires damaging to life, study finds

[Captainpaintball]

I just saved the michelin man pic, turned it into a bitmap image, then inverted the color scheme. VERY uh... interesting! I wish I could post it to the website, but my post skills are limited to words, not pictures.