PM contribution of road traffic

Reading the media one would think that the fine particles pollution is mostly caused by Diesel cars (the new villain on the block) and that by restricting Diesel cars this problem would be solved. The simple truth is quite different, as shown by this recent graph from the EEA:

The violet bands are the contributions to PM emissions by road transport (including tail pipe, brake and tire abrasive wear emissions): they are truly small w.r. to the totals: about 7.6% for the PM10 and 10.5% for the PM2.5 fine particles! So the vast majority from fine particle emissions come from sources not related to road transport. The elephant in the room are the emissions by wood burning (included in the brown segments labelled “Commercial, institutional and households).

(link to EEA article)