Rubber dust from car tires can poison freshwater fish
8:15
Fish die offs are common in waterways around roads after a storm and rubber dust from car tires may be one one reason why. A team led by Markus Brinkmann at the University of Saskatchewan found that a chemical called 6PPD-quinone, found in most car tires, is incredibly toxic to two trout species. Half of the rainbow and brook trout in the research tank would die when exposed to low concentrations of the chemical, much lower than is found in many rivers. Curiously, the chemical did not have an effect on two other species studied, Arctic char and white sturgeon. The research was published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.