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Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds
41–50 of 465 posts
Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds
#42I 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/
Both are mentioned. Did you read TFA?
Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds
#43I 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/
This is fake news. The backing study for this claim did all sorts of wonky unrealistic testing to come to this conclusion. If you own an EV, you viscerally know it's BS given that you're the one paying for the actual tire replacements on your real-world driven vehicle.
I don't think it's fake as there's plenty of reports that EVs do go through tyres quicker. A quick search brings up many articles on the phenomenon
e.g. https://www.pcmag.com/news/the-unexpected-problem-with-evs-t...
Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> The exhaust used to be really nasty
Specifically: Leaded gasoline (with tetraethyllead), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraethyllead , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_oxide , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOx
Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds
#45I 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/
This is fake news. The backing study for this claim did all sorts of wonky unrealistic testing to come to this conclusion. If you own an EV, you viscerally know it's BS given that you're the one paying for the actual tire replacements on your real-world driven vehicle.
Heavier vehicles wear down tires faster. Visceral intuitions can't really compete with physics here.
Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the fly in the ointment, they're not. The increased mass and torque actually produces more tire dust than a ICE car.
I wonder how much more. And if the increase is offset by the reduced exhaust, brake dust, oil leaks, and pollution from oil and gas production and distribution.
Probably proportional to the weight difference. It's more, but either way it's an apples-to-oranges comparison.
Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds
#47Earlier 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!
Biking in winter is easier than you might think actually - you might find this article about how the Finns in Oulu do it interesting: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231220-why-oulu-finland...
Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds
#48Earlier 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!
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Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds
#49Earlier 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!
Or by people who are disabled/elderly. I have MS, cycling isn't really going to work on a regular basis because between heat intolerance and cold making my leg spasticity worse, I'm not going to have a good time. I can drive just fine, though.
While yes, a lot of the elderly continue to cycle in countries where the infrastructure exists (e.g. the Netherlands), those places also have universal healthcare. You can't just throw your average 60 year old American office worker on a bike.
Or for people with small children who need to be able to transport them. Or their groceries for a family of more than 2, particularly since American cities and towns aren't usually accommodating of the 'stop every day/every other day for food' method of food shopping that's more common in some European countries. A bike isn't really a great option for someone with a 20 month old and a 4/5 year old.
Re: Dust from car brakes more harmful than exhaust, study finds
#50I'm conflicted about declaring something as "more harmful" in such a narrow context.
The article says that human cells react worse to dust from modern brakes than to exhaust or even dust from asbestos brakes. But this ignores the impact of exhaust on city pollution, or the hazards of asbestos production process, etc.
I guess this only tells us that dust from modern brakes can be dangerous and we should keep an eye on it. Which is valuable information, even if not as sensational.