Inhalable particles from pavement wear caused by studded tyres – properties and inflammatory human airway cell: extract from the WearTox project (VTI rapport 520)

The aims of this project have been to describe PM10 from studded tyre wear and to study their inflammatory effects in human airway cells. The VTI circular road simulator has been used to generate “clean” wear particles from two different pavements; asphalt concrete (ABT) and stone mastic asphalt (ABS), with granite respectively quartzite as the main stone materials. The advantage of using the road simulator is that the contribution from other sources can be minimised. During the project time, the project was expanded also to study particle generation by non-studded winter tyres (friction tyres) and two kinds of winter sanding agents, namely washed crushed stone and unwashed natural sand in combination with both studded and friction tyres. Most of these parts of the project are presented in VTI report 520. The results show that pavement wear by studded tyres generates about 40-50 times as much PM10 as that by friction tyres, but also that the ABT pavement generates several times more PM10 than the ABS pavement. The size distribution within PM10 has a maximum around 3-4 micrometer and more than 95 percent of the mass is larger than 1 micrometer. PM10 is totally dominated by fresh stone material. A fraction of very small particles, with a number concentration peak at around 30-40 nm, was also discovered. Their origin is unknown, but since the number distribution shifted depending on which tyre type was used, a possible origin is the tyres. In the cell studies the inflammation potential of the wear particles was compared with PM10 from Hornsgatan in Stockholm and PM10 from a Stockholm subway station. Later on in the project, diesel particles were made available for comparison. The cell study results show that PM10 from the ABT pavement is at least as inflammatory as diesel particles and more inflammatory than PM10 from the subway. The PM10 from Hornsgatan generally had the highest potential, but PM10 from the ABT pavement was often in parity. This despite the fact that the Hornsgatan PM10 were the only particle sample where endotoxin could be detected. Endotoxin causes an additive effect in studies of inflammation potential. PM10 from the ABS pavement generally had a lower potential than PM10 from the ABT pavement. (A)