Tire & Road Wear Particles (TRWP)

Tire and road wear particles (TRWP) are tiny debris produced when tires are used on the road.

Generated by the friction between tires and the road surface, TRWP are a mixture of tire tread material and road pavement material.

The Tire Industry Project has been supporting research into tire and road wear particles since 2005. In 2020, to mark the 15th Anniversary of the Tire Industry Project, TIP made most of its peer reviewed research available free of charge, and will aim to do so for all future studies into TRWP. It has not been possible to make some of the earlier TIP studies open access – copies of these studies can be requested from the study authors as indicated below.

TIP supported studies into TRWP include (chronological order):

• Comparison of particles generated using different methodologies. (2010) – Request the full publication via this link    
• Acute Aquatic Toxicity of Tire and Road Wear Particles to Alga, Daphnid and Fish. (2011) – Download the publication via this link   
• Evaluation of Potential for Toxicity from Subacute Inhalation of Tire and Road Wear Particles in Rats. (2012) – Download the publication via this link   
• Chronic toxicity of tire and road wear particles to water- and sediment-dwelling organisms. (2012) – Download the publication via this link    
• Use of a Deuterated Internal Standard with Pyrolysis-GC/MS Dimeric Marker Analysis to Quantify Tire Tread Particles in the Environment. (2012) – Download the publication via this link  
• Measurement of airborne concentrations of tire and road wear particles in urban and rural areas of France, Japan, and the United States. (2013) – Request the publication via this link
• Comparison of Tire and Road Wear Particle Concentrations in Sediment for Watersheds in France, Japan, and the United States by Quantitative Pyrolysis GC/MS Analysis. (2013) – Download the publication via this link
• Experimental methodology for assessing the environmental fate of organic chemicals in polymer matrices using column leaching studies and OECD 308 water/sediment systems: Application to tire and road wear particles. (2015) – Request the publication via this link  
• Characterizing export of land-based microplastics to the estuary – Part I: Application of integrated geospatial microplastic transport models to assess tire and road wear particles in the Seine watershed. (2018) – Request the publication via this link (an ETRMA sponsored study)
• Characterizing export of land-based microplastics to the estuary – Part II: Sensitivity analysis of an integrated geospatial microplastic transport modeling assessment of tire and road wear particles. (2018) – Request the publication via this link (an ETRMA sponsored study)
• Evaluation of Tire Wear Contribution to PM2.5 in Urban Environments. (2019) – Download the publication via this link
• Human health risk assessment of Tire and Road Wear Particles (TRWP) in air. (2019) – Download the publication via this link
• Chemical mapping of tire and road wear particles for single particle analysis. (2020) – Download the publication via this link
• Characterization of Individual Tire and Road Wear Particles in Environmental Road Dust, Tunnel Dust, and Sediment. (2021) – Download the publication via this link

Academic posters include:

• Biological leaching of metals from respirable tire wear particles. (2010) – link
• Effects ofintratracheal instillation of TRWP and TP on inflammation on and cytotoxicity in rat lung: A Comparative Toxicity Study. (2010) – link
• Physio-chemical analysis of airborne tire wear particles. (2010) – link

For a multimedia introduction to the topic of TRWP and a detailed account of the studies that TIP has sponsored to-date, visit www.tireparticles.info