Tire additives find their way into leafy vegetables through irrigation with treated wastewater and sewage sudge
Car tires contain hundreds of chemical additives that can leach out of them, ending up in crops and subsequently in the food chain. A team of researchers around ECH co-director Thilo Hofmann at the Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science at the University of Vienna and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have now detected these chemical residues in leafy vegetables for the first time. Despite the concentration being low, the evidence was clear, a finding that is also known for drug residues in plant-based foods. The paper detailing their research is now published in the internationally renowned journal Frontiers in Environmental Science.
The University of Vienna’s press release
Authors: Anya Sherman, Luzian E. Hämmerle, Evyatar B. Mordechay, Benny Chefetz, Thorsten Hüffer, Thilo Hofmann
