That’s because brakes are made from asbestos and every time you hit the break, they wear down. I work on old buildings and people always comment about working around asbestos but the people standing on street corners are exposed to far more than I am on a day to day basis.
this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
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Brake pads havent been made from asbestos for almost half a century.
Is what i was going to comment until i learned that complete bans were never enacted so imported brake pads can still contain asbestos.
None of mine do, anyway.
Tires are bad too, polluting waterways with Zinc and a hundred other chemicals, like 6PPD. At least EVs and hybrids brake a lot less, but that still leaves more tire dust from the extra weight.
Especially for EVs
especially what? the regenerative breaking reduces brake pad wear greatly, and doesn't shred/spit out the same material
I could be wrong, but I read that as a joke about EVs not having any exhaust.
EVs have very little exhaust coming out of their tailpipe. Which is one of the reasons why those are better than fossil powered charriots.
So tires being a larger source of pollution than exhaust, in relative terms, is especially true for EVs.
You make a good point, regenerative braking is probably reducing pollution in absolute terms.
What would be coming out of an EV's tailpipe? Used electrons?