Not only cars pollute the air with their nasty exhaust fumes, the asphalt they drive over also creates a lot of fine dust. Sometimes even more than the traffic itself.
That is stated in a study in Science Advances popped up. Especially when it is sunny, many dangerous substances are released. “We discovered that the asphalt emits various cocktails of organic compounds,” explains research leader Peeyush Khare. These lead to so-called secondary organic aerosols (SOA), major causes of particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers thick. It is precisely those very small dust particles that are harmful to health.
“It is quite frightening to notice the increased emissions of some of the potentially carcinogenic compounds with increasing temperature,” said researcher Thava Palanisami of the University of Newcastle. In sunny and warm weather, emissions increase by up to 300 percent. The asphalt itself is even more polluting than the cars that drive over it.
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