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Car tire particles and their additives: biomarkers for recent exposure in marine environments
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Researchers reviewed car tire wear particles and their chemical additives as environmental biomarkers for recent plastic pollution exposure in marine environments. Tire-specific compounds including benzothiazoles, zinc, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were identified as useful chemical tracers that can distinguish tire-derived pollution from other microplastic sources.
Car tire particles represent an important category of microplastics that is difficult to alleviate. The particles stem from abrasion during driving, so-called tire wear particles (TWPs), down-cycled end-of-life tire granulate, popular as low-cost infill on sports fields, or degradation products from discarded tires. The material contains a variety of additives and chemical residues from the manufacturing process, including metals, especially high concentrations of zinc, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and benzothiazoles, but also para-phenylenediamines (PPDs) and numerous other organic chemicals. In urbanized areas, TWPs are emitted from roads, and granulates disperse from artifical sports fields and other urban surfaces to the environment, suggesting that runoff to coastal systems is likely and a route of exposure to marine organisms. Recent experimental studies show tire rubber particles in marine animals from different functional groups in addition to uptake of tire-related organic chemicals into biological tissues. These include bivalves, crabs, and fish, representing different body sizes, marine habitats, and feeding modes, and thus varying exposure scenarios. Our findings from GC-HRMS SIM chromatography demonstrate that different marine species ingest tire rubber particles, and that several tire additives are taken up into tissues post-ingestion. Although the organic chemicals do not seem to bioaccumulate, they are specific and bioavailable chemicals in tire materials. Mapping of tire rubber particle distributions in coastal systems, dose-response toxicity testing and risk assessments of environmental concentrations are thus warranted, also with a view to potential trophic transfer and implications for human health.
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A review of potential physical and chemical markers for tyre and road wear particles
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This review examines potential physical and chemical markers for identifying tyre and road wear particles (TRWPs) in environmental samples, assessing how these markers can distinguish TRWPs from other microplastic sources in freshwater ecosystems. The authors found that chemical additives associated with tyre rubber, including benzothiazole derivatives and specific heavy metals, show promise as tracers, though standardization of detection methods remains a challenge.
Quantification of tire tread wear particles in microparticles produced on the road using oleamide as a novel marker
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A novel analytical method using oleamide, a compound incorporated into tire rubber for processing purposes, as a chemical marker was developed and validated to quantify tire tread wear particles in road microparticle samples, offering improved specificity over existing benzothiazole-based approaches for source attribution of tire-derived microplastics.
Organic Markers of Tire and Road Wear Particles in Sediments and Soils: Transformation Products of Major Antiozonants as Promising Candidates.
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Researchers identified organic chemical markers that can trace tire and road wear particles (TRWPs) in soils and sediments. They found that benzothiazole derivatives and transformation products of tire rubber chemicals were detectable in environmental samples and could serve as quantitative indicators of TRWP contamination. This provides scientists with better tools for tracking traffic-related pollution in the environment.
Chemical tracers for assessing the contribution of tire wear particles in atmospheric aerosol: analytical approaches, challenges and future perspectives
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Every time your car's tires grip the road, they shed tiny plastic particles that become part of the air pollution you breathe, and this can account for more air pollution than what comes out of your tailpipe. This review paper looks at the scientific methods used to detect these tire particles in air pollution and finds that there's currently no reliable single test for them, meaning scientists still need better tools to figure out exactly how much of the air we breathe contains this tire-derived microplastic pollution and its associated chemicals. This matters because until we can accurately measure it, it's hard to fully assess the health risks these particles and their leaching chemicals may pose.
Methods for laboratory-generation and physico-chemical characterisation of tyre wear particles
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Researchers developed a lab method to generate tire wear particles using a friction machine and then identified a suite of chemical compounds that could serve as reliable markers for detecting these particles in environmental samples. Tire wear is one of the largest single sources of microplastic pollution globally, yet quantifying it in the environment has been hampered by the lack of agreed marker compounds. This work lays groundwork for standardized monitoring of tire particle pollution in soils and waterways.
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