Posted on May 11, 2022
Seattle fish research could shake up global tire industry
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Electric vehicles have clear environmental benefits over gas-powered cars, yet all cars and trucks are polluters when it comes to their tires.
Research in Seattle-area creeks has discovered tire bits shedding lethal amounts of a little-known, salmon-killing chemical called 6PPD-quinone.
That research has led California officials to start regulating 6PPD, the tire-rubber stabilizer that degrades into toxic 6PPD-quinone, with consequences that could reverberate around the world.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control is expected to issue a draft rule in May requiring tire manufacturers to look for alternatives to 6PPD.
“6PPD-quinone is among the most toxic chemicals that we know of for aquatic life,” Jenifer McIntyre, an ecotoxicologist at Washington State University in Puyallup, said at the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in April.
Research in Seattle-area creeks has discovered tire bits shedding lethal amounts of a little-known, salmon-killing chemical called 6PPD-quinone.
That research has led California officials to start regulating 6PPD, the tire-rubber stabilizer that degrades into toxic 6PPD-quinone, with consequences that could reverberate around the world.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control is expected to issue a draft rule in May requiring tire manufacturers to look for alternatives to 6PPD.
“6PPD-quinone is among the most toxic chemicals that we know of for aquatic life,” Jenifer McIntyre, an ecotoxicologist at Washington State University in Puyallup, said at the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in April.
Seattle fish research could shake up global tire industry
Posted from kuow.org
Fishing
Seattle
Cars
Hazmat
Washington State University
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."“Tires are contributing literally, we think, thousands of chemicals into water when a little bit of tire rubber soaks in water,” Kolodziej said. “We need to get to a salmon-safe tire.”
A recent study of microplastics by the San Francisco Estuary Institute and the 5 Gyres Institute found trillions of apparent tire bits in runoff heading for San Francisco Bay and sediment beneath the bay.
“Nearly half of the particles from field samples were black fragments that had a distinctive rubbery texture when handled with tweezers,” the report states.
Though the researchers were unable to identify the composition of the black, rubbery particles, they resembled rubber fragments identified by spectroscopy studies, suggesting that car tires are the leading source of microplastics in that arm of the Pacific Ocean.
“That makes all that driving we do something to think about, not just in the Bay Area, but any setting where there are cars,” San Francisco Estuary Institute chemist Rebecca Sutton told the Los Angeles Times."
..."“Tires are contributing literally, we think, thousands of chemicals into water when a little bit of tire rubber soaks in water,” Kolodziej said. “We need to get to a salmon-safe tire.”
A recent study of microplastics by the San Francisco Estuary Institute and the 5 Gyres Institute found trillions of apparent tire bits in runoff heading for San Francisco Bay and sediment beneath the bay.
“Nearly half of the particles from field samples were black fragments that had a distinctive rubbery texture when handled with tweezers,” the report states.
Though the researchers were unable to identify the composition of the black, rubbery particles, they resembled rubber fragments identified by spectroscopy studies, suggesting that car tires are the leading source of microplastics in that arm of the Pacific Ocean.
“That makes all that driving we do something to think about, not just in the Bay Area, but any setting where there are cars,” San Francisco Estuary Institute chemist Rebecca Sutton told the Los Angeles Times."
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