Although plastic particles in the air are increasingly coming into focus, knowledge about their distribution and effects is still limited. Chemical analyses from Leipzig now provide details from Germany for the first time: Around 4% of the particulate matter consists of plastic. Around two-thirds of this comes from tire abrasion.
Anyone who’s worked in a warehouse with forklifts could tell you this. I remember taking care of a PC in one when I was like 19-20 and asking about the dust and being told it was tires.
My immediate thought was “oh Jesus Christ what must our cars be doing”
Then the first big public studies on microplastics dropped.