輪胎摩擦中會產(chǎn)生微塑料

橡膠與道路的纏綿，產(chǎn)生了一個嚴(yán)重的問題：微塑料。

Scientists analyzed more than 500 small particles pulled from the air around three busy German highways, and found that the vast majority — 89 percent — came from vehicle tires, brake systems and roads themselves. All together, these particles are classified by the researchers as microplastics, though they include materials other than plastic.

科學(xué)家們從德國三條繁忙的高速公路附近采集了空氣樣本，仔細(xì)分析了其中包含的500多顆微粒，發(fā)現(xiàn)絕大多數(shù)——89%——都來自汽車輪胎、制動系統(tǒng)和道路本身?？傊@些顆粒被研究人員歸類為微塑料，盡管它們確實(shí)包括塑料以外的材質(zhì)。

Those particles get blown by wind and washed by rain into waterways that lead to the ocean, where the debris can harm aquatic animals and fragile ecosystems, says environmental scientist Reto Gieré of the University of Pennsylvania. He presented the findings on November 6 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Indianapolis. Previous research has estimated that about 30 percent of the volume of microplastics polluting oceans, lakes and rivers come from tire wear.

賓夕法尼亞大學(xué)的環(huán)境科學(xué)家Reto Gieré說，這些顆粒被風(fēng)吹散，被雨水沖刷到下水道里，最終匯入海洋;在那里的塑料會對水生動物和脆弱的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)造成傷害。當(dāng)然，也會被攝入到人類的體內(nèi)。*

11月6日在印第安納波利斯舉行的美國地質(zhì)學(xué)會年會上，他向與會者介紹了自己的發(fā)現(xiàn)。之前有研究估計，污染海洋、湖泊和河流的微塑料中，大約有30%的來自輪胎磨損。

“We all want to reduce CO2 emissions” from vehicle exhaust, Gieré says. “But you can’t stop tire abrasion.” Traffic congestion makes the problem worse. Vehicles traveling at constant speeds, without so much brake use, produced fewer particles, the researchers found.

Gieré說：“我們都希望能夠減少汽車尾氣中二氧化碳的排放量，但你無法阻止輪胎磨損。”交通擁堵使問題更加嚴(yán)重。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，在不使用制動器的情況下以恒定速度行駛的車輛產(chǎn)生的顆粒物更少。

Because some materials, including synthetic rubber, become coated in dust and other tinier bits of debris, they’re not always easy to identify. The researchers figured out what each particle was by examining each of them under a scanning electron microscope and running chemical analyses.

由于某些材料(包括合成橡膠)會被灰塵和其他較小的碎屑涂覆，因此它們并不總是易于識別。研究人員通過掃描電子顯微鏡逐一觀察每個顆粒，并借助化學(xué)分析來確定它們來源于何處。

“These [tire] particles are stealthy,” says John Weinstein, an environmental toxicologist at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C., who was not involved in the study.

“這些[輪胎]顆粒相當(dāng)于是隱形的。”南卡羅來納州查爾斯頓Citadel的環(huán)境毒理學(xué)家John Weinstein說道，他并沒有參與這項研究。