You can all start walking...leaving those cars at home!
Posted on 11/28/2002 12:08:56 PM PST by 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.
You can all start walking...leaving those cars at home!
Revive Studebaker!
Conestoga wagons (pronounced "kahn-eh-stoh'-guh") were large, sturdy wagons usually pulled by six horses. Their strong, broad wheels made them capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the non-roads of the prairie. An unusual feature was a curved floor, designed to reduce load shifting -- and Conestogas were capable of loads up to six tons!
The high sides and curved floor gave rise to a common misconception...that Conestogas could float across rivers. During the Civil War, the Union Army did experiment with supply wagons that could -- they hoped -- float well enough to cross small rivers. But, the idea did not work very well. Conestogas were nicknamed prairie schooners because their high, white canvas tops gave the appearance of sailing ships, especially when traversing the sea of grass of the American prairie.
Smaller, cheaper styles of covered wagons, with lower sides and a flat floor, eventually replaced the Conestoga.
Conestoga or simple covered wagon. In their day they were the trucks, pickups, and family vans that opened the Great American West.
Conestoga Wagon |
The Conestoga wagon was named for the valley in Lancaster Co., Pa., where it was apparently developed by Pennsylvania-German settlers. It was one of the chief freight carriers in the East from 1750 until the coming of the railroads. The boat-shaped body prevented loads from shifting and gave the wagon a distinctive appearance. No two wagons, however, were alike, since they were often custom built. The Conestoga Wagon generally had a vermilion running gear, a Prussian blue wagon body, and a white canvas cover. Four to six horses generally pulled it and broad wheels kept it from getting stuck in the mud.
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| Conestoga Wagon |
Mennonites were associated with the development and use of the wagon. M. G. Weaver, Mennonite historian of Lancaster County, wrote that his father Gideon Weaver built these wagons in the Conestoga Valley from 1836. One of the early Conestoga wagon teamsters, who as a youth began hauling freight across the Alleghenies, was Moses Hartz, who later became an Amish minister.
Mabel Dunham in her Trail of the Conestoga has made immortal the story of the 1802 migration of the Mennonite Bricker brothers from eastern Pennsylvania to Ontario in a Conestoga wagon. A Conestoga wagon used by early Mennonite immigrants on their trip to Ontario is still preserved in 1998 at Doon Heritage Crossroads in Kitchener, Ont. To mark the Waterloo County Centennial of 1952, Amzie Martin, a man of Mennonite descent, drove this Conestoga Wagon from Pennsylvania to Kitchener. Amos Baker, an Old Order Dunker, preserved a Conestoga wagon of similar design and use in Vaughan Township, York County, Ont.
Early day, SUV!!!
Nope, this is not the cause of those problems. You all have some sort of blight out there that has everyone seriously worried for the trees, especially oaks. Don't remember the details but I read something about it about two weeks ago. It's a big thing there.
What the article completely leaves out is the basic fact that the dose of the substance in question is what matters. If and when Dr. Draper publishes correlation data between her test solutions and solutions found in working systems, we will have something to talk about.
They were subsequently cited by a county inspector for environmental violations involving hazardous waste, i.e. the old pavement. Apparently when it's in a parking lot it's innocuous, but when it's on a junk pile it's hazardous.
I wonder how that pavement knows where it is...
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