Even electric cars are polluting
Even if every car on the road was electric, it wouldn’t solve the problem of urban air pollution – because exhausts aren’t the only source of vehicular emissions. According to a new government report, over half of the air pollution attributed to road transport comes from brakes and tyres. Each time a car is driven, its brakes throw up tiny particles of iron and its tyres shed fragments of plastic; other particles come off the road surface. These enter the airstream, where they pose a threat to human health; the microplastics from tyres can also enter waterways via the sewers. (According to a study commissioned by Friends of the Earth last year, tyres are the biggest single source of microplastic pollution in lakes, rivers, and oceans.)…
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The Week United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, V. 1236