Dear Tree Huggers,

Actually, I recall reading that something like 25% of the "soot" in city air is in fact micro-particles from the wear from automobile tires. I can personally confirm that living in a city like Boston (relatively clean air, BTW) requires daily cleaning of your window sills! The sooty crud that covered everything made you think twice about spending your entire life in the city!

Cheers,

MJS

At 02:17 AM 3/22/99 -0500, Robert A. Alexander wrote:

>Tom - Good observation.  Of course, most of it has a great affinity for

>the asphalt, especially in really hot weather, other fractions are

>responsible for the "detergent like" action upon the first rain

>(responsible for the extreme slickness of asphalt just after the rain,

>huh?) and a very SMALL fraction makes it into the grounds bordering the

>highway!  Some tree-huggers would have you believe that streams near the

>highways are ankle-deep in scrubbed off tire material.  Go figure?

>

>I remember, back in the 70s when I was in veterinary school, being

>exposed to "expert" studies, most, I think, were German, where they cut

>hay raised in the medians/sides of the highways and fed them to cattle,

>UNTIL the cattle were shown to be experiencing lead poisoning from the

>contaminated grass!  Jeez, this was some really RAD stuff!  Chlorinated

>hydrocarbons might be found on the medians/sides of highways???  God,

>that's ALMOST as RAD as the idea that one might find soil in old gas

>station lots "contaminated" with chlorinated hydrocarbons, huh???

>

>BOB - WA4RRN

>'85GL - "Bourgeois"

>http://www.hydrocarbon'sorganic.org

>

<bold>

Michael J. Sullivan

</bold><italic>Director of Catalog Design

Open Market, Inc.

</italic>

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