Toxic tire chemicals are killing salmon. What can be done about it?

Experts are zeroing in on how to control 6PPD-Q via lawsuits, regulation and rain gardens.

By Julie Chadwick, The Discourse

Jenifer McIntyre (left), an assistant professor at WSU School of the Environment in Puyallup is a key researcher on the toxicity of stormwater and was part of a team along with research scientist Zhenyu Tian (right) led by the University of Washington Tacoma, UW and Washington State University Puyallup that discovered a chemical that kills coho salmon in urban streams. Photo by Mark Stone/University of Washington

After noticing the correlation between stormwater run-off and the dramatic deaths of coho salmon, researchers scored a major win when they discovered the toxic chemical responsible — 6PPD-Quinone, or 6PPD-Q.

The “coho killer,” as it’s become known, is a byproduct of a chemical added to car tires to prevent wear and cracking and its role in rapid salmon deaths after traveling from roadway runoff into freshwater streams  was published in a groundbreaking 2020 paper in Science.

…

Read the whole story on the Discourse.