Dust Resulting from Tire Wear and the Risk of Health Hazards

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of air pollutants on people’s health, focusing on dust produced from automobile tires while cars drive on roads. The annual volume of dust resulting from tire wear, calculated based on the number of automobiles registered in Japan, was 1747245.4 m 3 . To put it simply, this translates to approximately 1.4 times the volume of the Tokyo Dome, a famous Japanese baseball stadium. Particulate substances are categorized into three groups depending on their size, and dust resulting from tire wear is classified into the coarse particle mode along with mold spores, pollen, and dust produced from brake pads. This study examined whether or not tire dust causes health damage similarly to pollen, a particulate substance in the same group. There were 38/cm 2 dust particles resulting from tire wear on a busy road in Osaka Prefecture, and this number was larger than that of cedar pollen/cm 2 (35), a cause of hay fever, identified in Hokkaido. The results suggest that tire dust may also adversely affect the health of people if any of its constituents has a toxicity or causes allergies.