"If the public becomes more aware of the environmental dangers of
lead wheel weights and is given alternative wheel balancing choices then
there will be a decrease in lead entering the environment. It is
important that we make sure that the water we drink and the air we
breathe is free of lead." TEAM DEAD WEIGHT

LEAD WHEEL WEIGHT FACTS

Lead is one of the top three hazardous wastes on the Department of Health and Human Services list. Only Arsenic ranks higher. Lead is a highly toxic metal that can target bones, the brain, blood, kidneys and thyroid gland and can cause nervous-system disorders, learning disabilities, mental retardation and even death, especially in young children. Every 1 microgram/deciliter (ug/dL) increase in blood lead levels results in an approximately 3 point decrease in population IQ levels.

 

Typically, lead wheel weights are made of a mixture of 95 percent lead and 5 percent antimony and are clipped to the rims of every automobile wheel in the United States in order to balance the tires.

 

Lead weights have been used to balance wheels worldwide since the 1930s because lead is cheap, heavy, easy to work with and allows mechanics to use relatively small weights when balancing tires.  (Mike Astorino, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Perfect Equipment Incorporated, oral communication, July 26, 2005)

 

Lead wheel weights often come loose, fall off and are further abraded by automobile traffic. The small lead particles can be tracked into homes where they add to the lead burdens of people who live near busy streets. Furthermore, they are either washed into storm sewers and end up in waterways or are gathered during street cleaning and placed in municipal landfills. ( Robert A. Root : Lead Loading of Urban Highways )

 

It only takes 7 days for a discarded lead wheel weight to completely corrode and contaminate our environment. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyvi-hCv4Lo) "Lead wheel weights falling off cars and trucks is one of the last major, unregulated sources of lead pollution in the U.S.," Jeff Gearhart, Campaign Director of the Ecology Center.

 

University of Iowa Hygienic Lab test results of lead wheel weights exposed to various environmental like conditions indicated significant measurable amounts of toxic lead compounds present in the experimental solutions. Dr. Wichman stated, "Based on these results one can determine that various conditions could result in leaching of lead from wheel weights....” 2/8/2009 UIHL and eCybermission Science Research Team "Dead Weight", http//:www.Leadzero.org

 

Lead wheel weights are susceptible to atmospheric corrosion and may potentially release lead compounds into the environment. These conversions make lead more soluble in water and increase the risk that lead will contaminate surface, groundwater, and drinking water supplies. Specifically, discarded and road deposited lead wheel weights can end up in a landfill or are exposed to acid rain, salt, sand, snow and landfill bacteria and will potentially form highly mobile toxic lead compounds. Toxic lead compounds can then be readily and unknowingly absorbed by every living creature and all plant life. Lead transmission through the food chain is inevitable. http://www.smartenergy4kids.org/images/dilute.vinegar.leadww.1-10.html ( http://www.leadfreewheels.org/problem.shtml )

 

When a lead wheel weight falls off a car tire, if exposed to acid rain, it forms lead nitrate. Lead nitrate is a highly toxic water soluble lead compound that was banned in lead paints in 1968. The EPA estimates that 10% or approximately 2000 tons of wheel weights fall off annually into the environment, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. USA Today, August 28, 2008.

 

"Acetic acid present in landfills is very corrosive in the presence of wheel weight lead and will convert wheel weight lead to highly toxic and water soluble lead acetate. 1 ounce of lead has the potential to pollute over one million liters of water." eCybermission Team Dead Weight http://www.smartenergy4kids.org/images/dilute.vinegar.leadww.1-10.html

 

The California Department of Transportation estimates that two-thirds of the lead in California highway runoff comes from lead wheel weights. Recent studies have shown that lead deposition from lead wheel weights is a significant source of lead being released to the environment. (Robert A. Root)

 

"Wheel weights have been identified as the largest new route of lead releases into the environment," Michael Green, executive director of the Center for Environmental Health. "By moving the industry away from leaded wheel weights, we are helping to keep the lead out of our kids' drinking water."

 

Currently, six states (California, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, Vermont and Washington) have passed legislation or implemented regulations aimed at curbing or eliminating the use of lead wheel weights. Lead wheel weights were banned by the European Union in 2005 and are being phased out in Japan, Korea and Minnesota. Chrysler Corporation, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., and B.F. Goodrich are also phasing out the use and installation of lead wheel weights.

 

There are no federal regulatory controls governing use of lead wheel weights. Under the National Lead Free Wheel Weight Initiative (NLFWWI) the EPA is encouraging the voluntary phase-out of the sale and installation of lead wheel weights. The U.S. Air Force, Postal Service, and General Services Administration have joined this initiative. Click here for comments.

 

Environmental health hazards associated with lead wheel weights are a preventable problem. Competitively priced Lead-free wheel weights, such as steel, aluminum, copper, zinc and composites are readily available in the U.S. and world markets. Currently, the cost of environmentally friendly materials such as recommended steel is moderately higher (20 cents per one ounce weight) than lead wheel weights. However, as new tooling equipment is paid for and the volume of lead free alternative wheel weights sold increases, the cost of environmentally friendly wheel weights is expected to go down. The cost of lead wheel weight contamination prevention is far cheaper than the cost of removing lead from the environment.

Coated steel wheel weights are the preferred environmentally friendly alternative because they can be easily and economically recycled with the other steel components of automobiles. Wheel weights and balancing methods using any other material need to be separated from steel to be recycled.(during the smelting process) The worst wheel balancing methods use mercury or lead.
Click here for comments.

 

In the U.S., the aftermarket, which accounts for 80% of wheel weight usage, continues to use lead weights almost exclusively. Gearhart, 2006. Steel wheel weights are already in use in some of the major car corporations.