- A tire chemical called 6PPD-Q, already blamed for killing salmon, was examined for possible links to Alzheimer’s disease in a new computer-based study.
- Using computer models, researchers found that the chemical can latch onto several proteins associated with Alzheimer’s and reach brain regions involved in the disease.
- No patients or animals were tested; the study rests entirely on computer predictions and reused datasets, so it cannot prove the chemical causes Alzheimer’s.
Interesting but I’m going to predict this goes nowhere. It doesn’t look like the US has excessively high Alzheimers rates compared to countries that use less cars. The Netherlands still has plenty of Alzheimers diagnoses. I feel like you’d expect to see more regional variation if we could tie it to something like tires.
The Netherlands actually has one of the densest road networks in the world, and it’s possible that the concentrations necessary for harm could be very low.
from what I’ve heard, the Netherlands was a lot more car-based in the 1960s. is it possible that there is a delay to the difference in diagnoses?
Bikes have vulcanized tires too.
Vulcanized
Thanks for the correction, so edited. 🖖
Bike tires have less mass, accumulate much smaller mileage in a given time period, and are under far less mechanical stress than motor vehicle tires, so it’s likely that they barely contribute to the overall shedding of these chemicals into the environment.