Studded tires on asphalt pavements and health effects 4

[oldestguy]

A friend of mine in Sweden tells me that studded tires in cities are reported to bring up to the atmosphere asphalt dust of some type that is causing illnesses and deaths. Can someone explain the situation in engineering terms so that engineers elsewhere might benefit from the information. Currently the ban on studded tires in USA states is due to the wear on the pavements, as I understand it, not health effects.

 

[ACtrafficengr]

Your friend may be referring to this:

http://www.biocat.cat/en/news/european-experts-call-politicians-prioritize-air-pollution-their-agenda[/URL] ]Particulates from brake, clutch and tire wear and dust from asphalt now make up 50% of all air pollution and this continues to increase.

I've been told Colorado cities have to sweep their streets after every snowstorm, because tires grind the sand into enough fine particulates to violate air quality standards. I can see studded tires having a similar effect, but I'd expect it to be smaller.

NY's winter-only restriction on studded tires are for road wear reasons.

 

[BigH]

Never heard of this before but then we don't have many studded tyres in SE Asia . . .
But as you say - it seems to be a Swedish thing to report . . .:

http://www.itm.su.se/documents/poster/Meister_Poster_ISEE2013_20130808.pdf

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/40950286/...may-pose-risks-your-lungs-heart/#.VE5AKldT2us

 

[oldestguy]

Thanks guys. One other piece of news from the Swedish friend is the cost of a gallon of gas went down to $7.00 recently.

 

[bridgebuster]

I was in NJ yesterday - $2.73 a gallon

 

[beej67]

Tell Sweden to start fracking.

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[bimr]

First off, you have dust from the gravel roads. 75% of the road network is gravel. The dust pollutant is known as PM10.

In Sweden, about 20 percent of the 100,000 km national road network consists of gravel roads (Vägverket, 2005a). In total, the Swedish gravel road network is roughly estimated to be 300,000 km, or about 75 percent of the total road network (Enkell, 2003). A considerable problem on these roads is dust generation from vehicle passage, most commonly observed as a dust cloud behind vehicles
travelling on the road.

Most particle measurements have focused on particulate matter of sizes up to 10 μm in diameter (PM10) because of the health hazard posed by these particles in the atmosphere (Addo and Sanders, 1995). Gottschalk (1994) reports that PM10 can be retained in the human respiratory system. Increased PM10 concentrations, regardless of particle composition, have through several medical studies been shown to increase the mortality rate from heart and lung diseases (Gustafsson, 2005). Particle pollution has been linked to decreased lung function, aggravated asthma, development of chronic bronchitis, and irregular heartbeat (Kuennen, 2006). Concerns have been raised whether the maximum allowed concentration of particulate matter (PM10), according to the European Council Directive 1999/30/EC, is violated in the vicinity of a gravel road, which could create a threat to inhabitants of buildings adjacent to the road.

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:309927/FULLTEXT01

As if this is not bad enough, it has been postulated that the studded tires traveling on stone mastic asphalt are forming particulates smaller even than PM10, nano particulate. There are 1000 nanometers in a micron.

http://www.itm.su.se/documents/poster/TyreStuds.pdf

Airborne particulate matter varies widely in its physical and chemical composition, source and particle size. PM10 particles (the fraction of particulates in air of very small size (<10 µm)) and PM2.5 particles (<2.5 µm) are of major current concern, as they are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and so potentially pose significant health risks. Larger particles meanwhile, are not readily inhaled, and are removed relatively efficiently from the air by sedimentation. The principal source of airborne PM10 and PM2.5 matter in European cities is road traffic emissions, particularly from diesel vehicles. The limit values are very often exceeded in European cities.

 

[racookpe1978]

OK, so dust is a problem when snow studded tires are driven on paved roads.

Let's eliminate the studded tires completely and kill more people quicker because THEY SLIDE OFF OF THE PAVED ROADS IN THE SNOW!

This is part of the agenda-driven political-funding-academic-research-in-search-of-more-academic-research-dollars ....

 

[dhengr]

Oldestguy:
My understanding is that they banned studded tires in MN & WI because of the pavement rutting they were causing. At that time, we were just starting to worry about smoking as a health issue, so what did we know about health, and airborne particles causing health problems. Today, we have become so litigious that we’ll sue anyone over anything; witness eastern states buying cheap electric power from western states and then suing them for running coal fired power plants, with their smoke blowing east. And, with our improved testing and sampling methods I don’t doubt that we might find some petro-chemical dust particles (from asphalt) in the air. For the most part, the studs grind the pavement into a very fine dust, I’m sure, and this can become airborne.

 

[oldestguy]

Now let's sit back and ponder. How may of us old guys are still here even though we helped install asbestos sheeting on hot air ducts, examined buildings with asbestos blown on, etc. served in navy inside lots of it. Gosh, when I grew up very few roads were paved, no studs, but tire chains. Dry summers meant lots of dust comes in from farm fields. Roads just as bad. So far I made it at 86. whew.

Now I hear the co-founder of The Weather channel says global warming is a myth. Says polar ice is even thicker than before. Where does this end?

 

[concretemasonry]

I live in MN and have for years. - I do not even know if there is a ban on studded tires or if it is enforced. It has been many years since I even heard of anyone thinking of using them. They seem to "be dead horse", except for ice racing on lakes (very rare).

Much is due to improvements and types of tires and to the auto suspension, drives and better tread patterns, which eliminates the need/expense/trouble for a separate set of winter tires or heaven forbid, chains. The only chains seen here are leftovers from a western traveler that was required to carry chains for a mountain pass.

Even in the 1960's, chains were a novelty item that people used to try to drive though impassibly block roads. Now, improved snow removal methods and pretreatment have eliminated surprises. Fortunately, we have a a lot of cold clear weather before and immediately after a snow and the sun does a great job letting the roads "freeze dry" using the transpiration of the solid(ice) to vapor without melting and running very much.

I do own 2-4WD vehicles that I religiously put into auto 4WD, 4 wheel high and 4 wheel low once a year to make sure they work if ever needed. - They were bought to be able to pull a boat and trailer out of a lake or river, but normally not needed even for that.

Personally, I do not see the road abrasion of any possible studs to be a major problem today. There will always be a few paranoid people that feel the need for studs or chains, but the effects are minimal

Dick

Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.

 

[bimr]

I grew up listening to the guy on local TV. By the way, the former TV weatherman (80 year old John Coleman) does not hold a degree in climatology or any related discipline, he does not have a journalism degree, nor has he studied or conducted any research in that field; he merely parrots arguments advanced by others. Moreover, much of his criticism of climate change deals with impugning the motives of those engaged in that discipline rather than refuting the science behind their work.

Read more at

http://www.snopes.com/politics/science/coleman.asp#kyzlXtpqIxxYPUBr.99

Speaking of parrots, you can probably obtain better information on climate change than what Coleman is saying by visiting the local pet shop and listening to an actual parrot.

 

[racookpe1978]

BIMR:

Rather critical of Mr Coleman, eh? Are government paid catastro-physicists spending government money on salaries and research and retirement only trustworthy when they demand policies that will raise government taxes by 1.3 trillion a year?

OK. Tell me again why we have have no measured increase in global average temperatures for 18 years now, despite a steady increase in CO2 ....
Tell me why global average temperatures increased at the same rate as the 20 year period 1976 - 1996 between 1915 and 1935 when CO2 was at much lower levels than today?
Tell me again why temperatures were warmer around the year 1100 AD than now, but then cooled for 500 years into 1650, then warmed for 450 years between 1650 and 2000?
Tell me again which global circulation models are accurate now - just 8 years after they were last "calibrated" but are already all out of their 2 sigma prediction range?
Tell just what weather events are more extreme today, compared to the past.
Tell me why we should kill millions worldwide to control CO2, when increasing CO2 is only beneficial, and when increasing CO2 levels will not change future global average temeprature changes.

 

[dicksewerrat]

Minnesota did ban studded tires because of the rutting. MNDOT didn't want to repair I35 then and now they are fixing all those roads. I do know that 4WD helps you start but does not help you stop.

Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.

http://WWW.amlinereast.com

 

[bimr]

racookpe1978, I see you have "nuclear" beside your name. If a man on the street was interviewed on TV about design aspects of nuclear reactors, would you listen to him? Of course not. Coleman doesn't know anything more than the man on the street about climate change. He lacks a science background. The term "happy talk" was actually invented to describe his TV show. They actually invented the modern TV news format.

"At WLS, Coleman was teamed with Fahey Flynn, Joel Daly and Bill Frink to form the Eyewitness News team, creating a news brand name and establishing a highly successful new local news format derisively dubbed "happy talk" by a local television columnist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Coleman_(news_weathercaster)

You can't be serious regarding your comments about climate change? Do a search about climate change and answer your own questions. I am casting my vote with the 97% of climate scientists that agree there is climate change.

http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/indicators/

If you have more information available to you, you might contact Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Christopher Keating. Each of these guys is offering $10,000 if you can prove that climate change is a hoax.

One finally thought. Think of the US government as an insurance company with a standing army. If you take away the health insurance aspects and military/DOD sectors, the rest of the government expenses are nil. The little that is spent on climate change is not going to break your bank.

 

[jayrod12]

I don't want to jump in on this however, the current evidence of "climate change" is the gradual rising of the global temperature. The data that is constantly shown only goes back ~200 years(0.0000045% of the earth's life) however over the 4.6 billion years of the earth these fluctuations of temperature have been common and happen over longer periods of time than 200 years.

Is the earth gradually warming at the current time? Yup. Can we do anything to stop it? Probably not as it has been fluctuating for hundreds of millions of years and nothing is stopping the earth from deciding tomorrow to start declining into the next ice age. People need to look at the macro scale as well as the micro.

 

[oldestguy]

Golly. I shudda not opened the door on this one, but what a reaction! My friend also updated me on a large construction project near him at a where a large emergency sillway was cut in rock in anticipation of heavy spring run-off of winter snows.

 

[greenone]

Chains are alive and well in the passes in the Sierras. If you don't have 4-wheel drive, there are times chains are mandatory.

 

[bimr]

oldestguy, perhaps we should talk about that $1.98 / liter cost of gas in Sweden.

Don't hear too many Swedes complaining. I guess it is because they have:

Health and Sickness

1. subsidized doctor care mainly in county clinics
2. free public hospital treatment
3. subsidized dental care; free for children
4. subsidized prescription drugs; life-saving drugs free
5. free abortions and sterilizations
6. free maternity clinics for prenatal care
7. cash benefits to compensate for loss of most wages due to sickness; a separate benefit is available for workers injured on the job

Family Support

8. tax-free monthly payment to parents for each child; single parents receive an additional payment for each child
9. parents have a right to take a total of 12 months paid leave from work at near full wages to care for each child up to first year in school
10. subsidized child care at home or in a government day-care center
11. one year at a subsidized nursery school
12. unemployment insurance pays about 80 percent of previous income

Pensions

13. most retired persons receive three different kinds of old-age pensions paid for by taxes and employer contributions
14. full or partial disability pensions; disabled child pension goes to parents until age 16 and then directly to child
15. special payment to handicapped persons who are working or in school
16. surviving spouse and orphan pensions

 

[oldestguy]

bimr: Ya missed summer vacations. It seems no one works most of the summer. No problem getting a hotel room if you travel there then, except in vacation towns like Visby. However, moving there to retire you have to cough up most of your funds and learn Swedish. Not much in the way of restrictions on immigrants either. I recommend doing a visit during Mid-Summer activities. One warning don't take even one drink and drive. Whoops---no license, maybe no car either.