kriskros said:
vanilla ice said:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2661/when-the-rubber-meets-the-road-where-does-it-go
thanks for the link Vanila...it was very informative..much more so than Nehmo
To begin, I’ll disclose that for many years I bought and sold mobile home tires, which, of course, produce dust. But I also personally have asthma (which is controlled), and that should compensate for any bias of mine.
Cecil Adams wrote his tire dust article in '06, and that's when I read it (I began
posting to the newsgroup, alt.fan.cecil-adams, under my real name before he wrote that article).
In the course of the mobile home tire business, the subject of tire dust came up from time to time. It's sort of an urban myth (and that's why Cecil Adams addressed it, BTW). Basically, it occurs to someone that a lot of rubber disappears. Then they learn it turns into dust. Then they look for a problem. But I have yet to see definite evidence of one.
[I could give this subject a through response, but it’s not worth it. I’ll be brief.]
Cecil doesn't cite definite evidence of a problem either, but, as mild fear mongering is one of his interest-generating techniques, he does skew the story some. He centers on the latex allergy issue.
First, I don’t like the phrase “and some think [the issue] is why”. When Cecil says this, it means he doesn’t have a reference.
Cecil’s use of the phrase.
In that first paragraph, Cecil notes a rise in latex allergies and a rise in asthma, and then he vaguely correlates this, apparently, but not explicitly, to tire use. His logic is convoluted, of course. He can get away with it because he doesn’t explicitly state a conclusion, but, personally, I want science.
If he had actually studied the issue, he would have concentrated on zinc. Actually, zinc is the most harmful constituent of tire dust. But I’m being brief.
His statistics regarding the latex allergy are debatable. He claims “Somewhere from 1 to 6 percent of the U.S. population has some sensitivity to latex, “
1% is accepted by American Latex Allergy Association.
In order to make the problem look worse, he doesn’t differentiate the kinds of latex sensitivities. Most are technically not allergies. They are Irritant Contact Dermatitis, and tire dust doesn’t play a role in that.
If we are accusing tire dust latex of causing a problem, it’s form the airborne particulates, and the problem would be form of asthma called Natural Rubber Latex hypersensitivity allergy (NRL). It’s not the contact dermatitis that represents the large part of the "sensitivity" statistic.
He concludes by advising we all should keep our tires properly aired up. Well, I agree.
Another way to look at tire dust is simply to apply common sense. Geetarboy correctly steers toward the real issue when he contrasts the impact of a car to an e-bike. Let’s say an average car drives a year. During that time, _
roughly_, it will emit 6,000kg of CO2, 40 kg of Hydrocarbons, 300 kg of CO, 20kg of NOx, plus (I haven’t figured out) carbon particulates, etc. And deriving (again _roughly_) from Cecil’s estimates, 1.5 Kg of tire dust, most of which remains benignly mixed with every other kind of dirt on the ground.
Oh, there are some
bacteria that eat the stuff. (<-PDF warning, I didn’t read the thing. I just like linking to stuff and I wanted to follow Gogo's lead.)
Now, regarding your post, kriskros ,Since you don’t state your contention, there’s nothing to argue against. However, you objected to my post on the grounds that a link to the Cecil Adams page was more informative. Well, okay, but is that your whole point?
