Selling your Tesla for a conventional car? Think of the silent pollutant

By choosing an electric car, you’re not just supporting a brand or a CEO. You’re making a statement about the future you want to create. A future with cleaner air, healthier communities, and less pollution. You’re helping reduce harmful brake dust, which poses a hidden health risk to millions of people. And you’re reducing the demand for fossil fuels, contributing to a broader movement toward renewable energy and environmental sustainability.

The post Selling your Tesla for a conventional car? Think of the silent pollutant appeared first on Green Prophet.

Cheryl Crow sells her Tesla car to protest Elon Musk and DOGE. Is she going to buy a more polluting non-electric?

How Brake Dust Could Be More Harmful Than Car Exhaust—and Why Electric Cars Could Be the Answer

When we think about car pollution, we often focus on the visible exhaust—clouds of smoke that puff from tailpipes, blackening the air. But what if the real culprit isn’t so easy to see? What if the pollution caused by cars is a quieter, more insidious threat that’s hiding in plain sight? Research from 2015 and picked up again at Yale Environment 360 suggests that brake dust—tiny particles that are kicked up from the wear and tear of brake pads—may actually cause more harm to our lungs than exhaust fumes.

Brake Dust vs. Diesel Exhaust: A Hidden Threat

The 2015 study published in Particle and Fibre Toxicology brings this issue into sharper focus. Researchers exposed human lung cells to two sources of pollution: brake dust and diesel exhaust. To their surprise, the brake dust caused more harm to the cells than the exhaust did. The reason? Brake dust contains harmful chemicals, especially copper, which has been shown to aggravate respiratory issues like asthma and other lung diseases.

What’s even more startling is that newer brake pads—made to replace asbestos-containing pads—were found to be even more toxic. While asbestos is a well-known carcinogen, the copper in modern pads is no less dangerous, especially when it’s rel