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Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds

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Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds

#31
I think the article linked the wrong article? Because the article describes the linked study as "researchers grew human lung cells in a lab and exposed them to dust from car brakes and from diesel tailpipes", but the linked study is a cohort study of correlation, that doesn't involve any experimental manipulation and is nothing like that description (at least as presented in the abstract I have access to.)

Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds

#32

I think this is missing out on the big issue - tyre pollution which contains really nasty chemicals that inevitably get washed into rivers and waterways. Also, car-shaped EVs often use regenerative braking which will reduce the amount of brake dust pollution, but with their increased weight and powerful torque, they produce a lot more tyre pollution than ICE vehicles. https://earth.org/tyre-pollution/

I think the key is to make a class of light-weight EVs with smaller, lighter batteries for life around town. Most of us rarely drive more than a few dozen miles a day. But then there are those weekend trips.

For the weekend trips you could put in an engine with a power splitter

Oh what's this, turns out the ideal car was already invented twenty years ago, it's the Toyota Prius

Casually gets 50 mpg city and highway

Small, lightweight battery

Not a super expensive status symbol

The plugin models use very little gas for the daily commute, but you can always drive it like a pure ice car if you need to flee the country on zero notice

Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds

#34
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are called e-bikes

E-bikes are unusable at this time of year. It needs to stand stably on it's own to not kill me the instant some ice appears (so, four wheels) and have an enclosed cabin to stop frostbite.

I’ve biked to work in -15C. Get studded tires.

Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds

#35
post #30
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This study is looking at the health effects, not particle count per mile of car use. A similar study looking at tire dust would also be interesting.

The Guardian did a piece on this two years ago: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/03/car-tyre...

That is still talking about particulate counts, not health effects (the article does one study linking a particular constituent to salmon health effects.)

Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds

#36

I think this is missing out on the big issue - tyre pollution which contains really nasty chemicals that inevitably get washed into rivers and waterways. Also, car-shaped EVs often use regenerative braking which will reduce the amount of brake dust pollution, but with their increased weight and powerful torque, they produce a lot more tyre pollution than ICE vehicles. https://earth.org/tyre-pollution/

Interesting that nobody every talked about tyre/brake dust until it became clear that cars aren't going away as we phase out fossil fuels, they're just going electric. Is this a serious environmental concern compared to the climate/emissions issue, or just the 'r/fuckcars mentality'? Meanwhile, here in the UK, one of the more interesting alternatives - personal light EVs (ebikes/scooters) are being utterly demonized,…

The exhaust used to be really nasty until just a little while ago. Nobody was focusing on the less harmful emissions.

Now we mostly fixed it, so it's time to look at the other stuff.

Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds

#37

I think this is missing out on the big issue - tyre pollution which contains really nasty chemicals that inevitably get washed into rivers and waterways. Also, car-shaped EVs often use regenerative braking which will reduce the amount of brake dust pollution, but with their increased weight and powerful torque, they produce a lot more tyre pollution than ICE vehicles. https://earth.org/tyre-pollution/

Interesting that nobody every talked about tyre/brake dust until it became clear that cars aren't going away as we phase out fossil fuels, they're just going electric. Is this a serious environmental concern compared to the climate/emissions issue, or just the 'r/fuckcars mentality'? Meanwhile, here in the UK, one of the more interesting alternatives - personal light EVs (ebikes/scooters) are being utterly demonized,…

It’s the “both sides bad” ploy in the service of continuing fossil fuel usage.

Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds

#39
post #11
post #4

I wonder if this will spur mandatory regenerative braking in all cars, eventually, as a means of reducing pollutants?

You can gear down in a manual transmission ICE to achieve similar reduction effects, but I doubt they will bring back manuals.

I have a newer automatic ICE and they use cylinder deactivation for engine braking on low speed coasting.

Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great idea. And since it'll be limited to in town use, something narrower might be useful - maybe give it two wheels instead of four? That'd be huge for reducing weight and increasing range. And for suitable geographic areas, it might even be possible to make one light enough that it could be powered by the rider, no external power source required! Then, with the reduction in width required for these futuris…

You show me one of these that can be ridden [comfortably] in 2 degrees Fahrenheit with snow and ice everywhere and you have my money!

https://www.utahtrikes.com/PROD-11617955.html
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