Do tire wear emissions pose a risk to human health?
Understanding the potential human health impact of tire wear emissions is a complex, multi-stakeholder issue that remains a focus area across the scientific community, academia, and the industry.
An independent, peer-reviewed, three-part “State of Knowledge” paper series led by Müller et al (2026) provides the most comprehensive review of global science on tire wear emissions to date, drawing on more than 850 scientific publications.
The paper concludes that while scientific understanding has advanced, current data to quantify human health impacts attributable to tire wear emissions remains inconclusive. The review also finds that tire wear particles typically account for less than 5% of airborne PM 2.5 and PM 10 in urban environments; and are not shown to be more potent than general ambient particulate matter.
A key barrier in this regard is the lack of harmonized global methodologies for sampling, analyzing, and characterizing tire wear emissions, which limit reliable comparison and risk assessment across studies.
TIP supports further research, greater methodological harmonization, improved data sharing, and more real-world studies to inform robust, science-based decisions. Besides contributing to standards setting (with ISO), its ongoing and planned research includes topics around characterization, transport and fate of TRWP in the environment and their degradation.
Additionally, TIP helps accelerate knowledge-building by creating open, science-focused platforms such as Research Conferences and issuing Open Calls for Projects to fund research initiatives worldwide.