TEAM DEAD WEIGHT HELPS PHASE IN LEAD FREE WHEEL WEIGHTS BY CREATING A COMMUNITY MODEL.

Typically, lead wheel weights are a mixture of 95% lead and 5% antimony and are clipped to the wheel rims of every vehicle in the United States to ensure tire balance and prevent vibration at high speeds. Since the 1930’s lead weights have been used to balance wheels worldwide because lead is cheap, heavy, easy to work with, and allows mechanics to use relatively small weights to balance the wheels. There are millions of vehicles in the United States with an average of 8 ounces of lead used to balance the wheels of every vehicle. According to the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Federal Highway Administration, about 65,000 tons of lead wheel weights were in use on the more than 200 million cars and trucks driven in the United States in 2003. Lead weights falling off tire rims are one of the largest ongoing releases of lead into the environment. Although many conscientious automotive service centers believe they are controlling the lead wheel weight problem by recycling lead wheel weights, the EPA estimates that up to 13% or approximately 2,000 tons of wheel weights fall off into the environment each year (USA Today, August 28, 2008). While the federal government has banned lead in paint, gasoline and plumbing, among other products, the EPA, until recently, has ignored an estimated 3.5 to 4 million pounds of lead weights that drop off tire rims and onto U.S. roads every year.

Science research team "Dead Weight" recognizes the need to protect the public from exposure to lead. Our goal is to rid the world of hazardous lead in wheel weights. Historically, little thought has been given about the metal used in making wheel weights. There are no federal laws governing the use of lead in wheel weights. Lead wheel weights are one of the last major unregulated sources of lead pollution entering the environment (Jeff Gearhart). 80% of the wheel weights installed in the United States are lead wheel weights while the remaining 20% are lead free wheel weights. While new car and wheel weight manufacturers are making voluntary progress to phase in lead-free wheel weights, 80% of all lead wheel weights sold are installed by tire service stations (USA Today, August 28, 2008).

Employees at tire service center are exposed to lead wheel weight dust on a daily basis. People are exposed to lead fragments and dust when lead wheel weights fall from motor vehicles onto roadways and are abraded and pulverized by the traffic or are swept up and deposited in landfills. Lead wheel weights on roadways can contribute to soil, surface and groundwater contamination and pose hazards to aquatic life. "A one ounce lead wheel weight weighs over 28 grams. Our tests with the help of the University of Iowa Hygienic Lab suggest that 1 gram of wheel weight lead has the potential to contaminate over 66,000 liters of water." http://www.smartenergy4kids.org/images/dilute.vinegar.leadww.1-10.html

Lead transmission through the food chain is inevitable. Lead negatively affects every body system. While lead is hazardous to people of all ages, lead is especially harmful to fetuses, children, and adults of childbearing age. Effects of lead on a child's cognitive, behavioral, and developmental abilities may necessitate large expenditures of personal and public funds for health care and special education. Irreversible damage to children and subsequent expenditures could be avoided if exposure to lead is reduced.

Wheel weight lead contamination is a preventable problem because environmentally friendly and competitively priced lead-free wheel weight alternatives are available. The cost of lead wheel weight contamination prevention is far less expensive than the cost of removing lead from the environment. Our science research team has created a community minded solution to phase in the use of environmentally friendly steel wheel weights. Our lead wheel weight research project suggests and outlines a community based plan that can be replicated in any community across the United States. We convinced our city council to eliminate lead wheel weights on city vehicles and our state legislators to introduce a bill banning the sale and installation of lead wheel weights in Iowa. Our efforts have made a real difference. Please click on our website links to see our journey as we explored a model for phasing out the current practice of using lead in wheel weights. You may click on this link to read our Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge First Place and national grand prize winning lead wheel weight research and proposal paper.

October 24, 2009 Science Research Team "Dead Weight" Influences Federal Environmental Policy. Jathan Kron corresponds with Representative Spencer Black to offer support for new Wisconsin lead wheel weight ban bill. October 19, 2009 OCTOBER 16, 2009 OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EXCECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OFFICIAL NEWS RELEASE OSTP Director Holdren and Secretary of Education Duncan Honor Team Dead Weight TEAM "DEAD WEIGHT" PLAYS ROLE IN NEW CALIFORNIA LEAD WHEEL WEIGHT BAN October 12, 2009 Governor Schwarzenegger announces signing of a ban on the sale and installation of lead wheel weights that will help improve water quality throughout the state. Please click here to read more. Team Dead Weight from West Branch, Iowa, met with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Senator Charles Grassley on October 8 2009, along with their teacher and mentor Hector Iberra, Siemens Foundation and Discovery Education executives. California Center for Environmental Health (CEH) notifies Team "Dead Weight" that the California Legislature has passed and sent a bill to ban the sale, distribution and use of lead wheel weights in California. CEH requests reprint permission of Team Dead Weight's research and environmental testing photo to send to Governor Schwarzenegger. Please click here to read more... Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge and Discovery Education recognize that the "2008-2009 first place winners Team Dead Weight
helped convince the EPA to change policies". September 2, 2009 WEST BRANCH TIMES REPORTS EPA FLIPS OVER DEADWEIGHT Michigan group names West Branch Iowa science team as contributing factor in EPA wheel weight decision. The federal Environmental Protection Agency last week changed its mind on the environmental impact of lead wheel weights, and a trio of West Branch pupils got part of the credit for the turnaround. BREAKING NEWS REPORTED BY JEFF GEARHART AT THE ECOLOGY CENTER AUGUST 26,2009: Environmental Protection Agency Moves to Ban Sale of Toxic Lead Tire Balancing Weights for Cars Washington, DC - In a decision issued today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reversed its 2005 decision and accepted a petition from a dozen environmental and public health organizations to immediately begin rulemaking to ban lead wheel balancing weights.
Please click here to read more. FOR EPA ANNOUNCEMENTS GO TO: (http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/
db41c4a8c1f1d2d88525761e0056dfed?OpenDocument) (http://www.epa.gov/oppt/chemtest/pubs/petitions.html#petition4)

If more research/experimentation needs to be done, what are the next steps? Answer: We recommend that the same testing protocol should be duplicated with very small particles of lead because according to Robert Root’s study "Lead Loading of Streets by Motor Vehicle Weights" lead wheel weights are ground into very small pieces when motor vehicles run over them. Dr. Root’s advise in his letter stated "as the size of the particle decreases the size of the surface area increases more than the volume of the lead particle such that smaller particles have a larger reactive surface than large particles." He suggested that we should increase the surface area of the lead wheel weight by filing lead wheel weights with a mill file and using the filings in any future lead wheel weight solubility experiments. After the UIHL tests were completed, Dr. Wichman stated "Based on these results one can determine that various conditions could result in leaching of lead from wheel weights. How that models into contamination of groundwater and/or surface water requires more research." The lead wheel weight testing to determine the solubility of lead under various conditions is a logical step to enhance the understanding of how hazardous lead could be released into the environment. Further research is needed to show exactly which lead compounds were formed by the lead wheel weight in the various testing solutions. This would lead to greater understanding of how the lead in wheel weights contributes to environmental contamination. Further testing would be needed to confirm that lead wheel weights deposited in landfills form the deadly compounds lead acetate and lead nitrate. More experiments could be done to verify how many lead wheel weights are actually deposited on Iowa roads. Is the number deposited the national average of 10% or more than that? It would also be interesting to do tests with a few cars to see how long the wheel weights actually stay in place. We could also gather salt/sand mixtures deposited in garages by our vehicles and test this mixture to determine if lead is present. Additional research could also be done to find out what other daily use i tems are contaminating the environment with lead. Team Dead Weight closing lead wheel weight experimental comments: Since our environmentally simulated lab testing showed that lead wheel weights can become soluble and form toxic lead compounds under various conditions, we would like to expand our research to the streets, landfills and nearby waterways to show a direct correlation between the accidental deposition of lead wheel weights and their contribution to the contamination of our water.

Partners Dr. Robert Root -did studies on how many lead wheel weights were falling off of cars and going into the environment Dr. Michael Wichman, University of Iowa Hygenics Lab -Did testing for us involving testing for lead compounds with different solutions Jeff Gearhart -said “Lead wheel weights are one of the last major unregulated sources of lead entering the environment” Rep. Jeff Kauffman and Rep. Nate Willems -Helped us introduce legislation about lead wheel weights

Various Science Research Team Dead Weight PDF and HTML References: CEH.leadww.facts.pdf (pdf file link) index.htm (web page link) Gearhart.ppt (powerpoint link) Gearhart.html (web page link) KingCounty.Wa.Environmental.Purchasing.Program.Wheelweight.pdf (pdf file link) index.htm (web page link) Lead-Free.WheelWeights.KingCounty.WA.pdf (pdf file link) index.htm (web page link) PPRC.LeadFreeWheelWeights.pdf (pdf file link) index.htm (web page link) StocksandFlows.of.Lead-Based.WheelWeights.in.the.UnitedStates.pdf (pdf file link) index.htm (web page link) EPA.bans.leadww.2009-08-26.pdf (pdf file link) index.htm (web page link) Robert A. Root : Lead Loading of Urban Highways (pdf file link) http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/HazardousWaste/upload/HWMP_REP_dLead-Rep.pdf (pdf file link)