If you eat salad, you are doing something good for yourself and your health. Most people assume that this is the case, and in principle it is. But lettuce leaves may well contain harmful chemicals that have been dissolved by tire abrasion. This is according to a study recently published by researchers at the Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science at the University of Vienna. A release on the study said tire wear blows into the environment with the wind and is washed by rain into rivers and sewage. In total, one kilogram of tire wear is produced per year and per inhabitant. This is formed by the friction of the rubber of the car tires on the road. “If these chemicals are released in the root zone of edible plants, they can be a health concern for consumers* – assuming the chemicals are taken up by the plants,” says Thilo Hofmann, head of the research group. The research team was able to prove this in its study.