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I wonder if we are inhaling this.

I live in Phoenix, and when I go out at night with a good flashlight, the amount of stuff in the air, visible in the beam, is crazy. I imagine some is dirt among other things, but wonder if the micropastics of the tires are airborne as well.

Since it hardly ever rains here it probably just accumulates on the roads and gets kicked up with activity.



Wikipedia says it’s in most people’s urine, so yes (unless most people lick tires). Health effects in humans are unknown.


That urban black dust that accumulates on lawn furniture etc., how much of that is tires? The colour seems right.


I believe a lot of that is soot from diesel exhaust. And the two-cycle motors people use to mow their lawns and blow their leaves are amazingly polluting. Some of it might be the motor oil and partially-combusted gasoline they spew out. I'm curious what the balance is.


Must be to some degree. And brake dust


They find microplastics in human brain tissue, we are thoroughly fucked




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