Lead wheel weights meet their demise in California

[VH_Supra26]

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/08/lead_weight.jpg

Environmentally-friendly California is putting an end to lead balancing weights on wheels and tires. The heavy metal neurotoxin is polluting the state's ground water supplies, according to the Center for Environmental Health. The group claims that more than 500,000 pounds of lead weights are inadvertently flung off wheels each year, making it the state's leading cause of environmental lead contamination. Under a court settlement approved this week, Chrysler and the three largest lead weight wheel manufacturers will all phase out lead in wheel weights by the end of 2009. While California is taking the initiative in this country, we are still years behind the European Union, which banned lead weights in 2005. With lead on the chopping block, future wheel weights will be made from either steel or zinc alloy. Those metal weights are larger and more expensive to produce than lead, but much safer for Mother Earth.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/22/lead-wheel-weights-meet-their-demise-in-california/

[MoToHeAd125]

How the fuck did they come up with this number?

[i-vtec195]

How the fuck did they come up with this number?

probably just pulling it out of their ass. damn democrats.

[THAIpe_R]

cant wait for hover cars to come out

[meangreen94z]

Yes, like anything environmental in california, way overblown

[yourmom25]

interesting.

[300zdett]

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/08/lead_weight.jpg



http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/22/lead-wheel-weights-meet-their-demise-in-california/

proff or ban!!

[azinwood]

why not? if its lead, then its terrible - especially for children. why would stupid conservatives want to continue to pollute the environment and put your children or future children in danger?? :idea: Are you all the same ones that still want to use leaded gasoline, what about leaded paint? lolz

[MoToHeAd125]

I was merely asking, how the fuck they got that number? Disclose some statistics from a study, shit. Anyone can state "lead weights on wheels can kill baby kangaroo's, and increase chances of lactose intolerance in female platypuses." Its thrown straight outta left field.

[koolaider]

well it is lead, and it does pollute the environment. Maybe they did research just didn't detail it enough. But anyway it's still lead and it's bad for the environment and it's better to take care of it i guess.

[azinwood]

I was merely asking, how the fuck they got that number? Disclose some statistics from a study, shit. Anyone can state "lead weights on wheels can kill baby kangaroo's, and increase chances of lactose intolerance in female platypuses." Its thrown straight outta left field.
why dont you write to the Center for Environmental Health since you're so damned concerned. Obviously if the court and tire companies have come to an agreement it must be a significant amount. what are you thinking, it should be around 300,000 lbs?

[dantheman]

well it is lead, and it does pollute the environment. Maybe they did research just didn't detail it enough. But anyway it's still lead and it's bad for the environment and it's better to take care of it i guess.
lead didnt come from space, it came from teh environment. it cant pollute something that it came from.

it may pollute the water supply of a nigerian rainforest, but fuck me running who cares.

[TXBlackout03]

lead didnt come from space, it came from teh environment. it cant pollute something that it came from.

it may pollute the water supply of a nigerian rainforest, but fuck me running who cares.

yes.

[koolaider]

lead didnt come from space, it came from teh environment. it cant pollute something that it came from.

it may pollute the water supply of a nigerian rainforest, but fuck me running who cares.

It is polluting our environment, doesn't matter if its here or anywhere else, plus it's in california so it must be significant for them to ban it there and probably everywhere else soon. Well obviously lead comes from earth, trying being exposed to a decent amount of lead every day for the rest of your life then. Maybe you think we should keep using leaded gasoline right?
Or maybe we should of kept on painting all our houses with leaded paint. :hsugh:

[Narcissistic]

Lead is out dated. and there's no telling how many peices of lead are littering all the roads in the country and then getting into our water supply. This seems like a good idea. I still think the EPA has it's head up it's ass when it comes to drilling for oil though.

[alhusain]

lead didnt come from space, it came from teh environment. it cant pollute something that it came from.

it may pollute the water supply of a nigerian rainforest, but fuck me running who cares.



this was a dumbass thing to say... Gasoline comes from the environment and it pollutes it everyday.

[FbodTrek]

possibly the silliest thing i've ever heard. Never seen a Pb contamination reported from a TX groundwater sample before, perhaps some Commiefornians are just dumping buckets of powdered lead into their wells? That state needs to fall of the fucking map already, and take all those punk ass Super Libs with it.

[Narcissistic]

lead didnt come from space, it came from teh environment. it cant pollute something that it came from.

it may pollute the water supply of a nigerian rainforest, but fuck me running who cares.
Well.

Earth came from space.

Most of the elements not already on the earth at it's begining came from space.

Water came from space.

You're failry idiotic. By your logic we should be worry free and flood the streets with mercury since it's natural and harmless.


possibly the silliest thing i've ever heard. Never seen a Pb contamination reported from a TX groundwater sample before, perhaps some Commiefornians are just dumping buckets of powdered lead into their wells? That state needs to fall of the fucking map already, and take all those punk ass Super Libs with it.

That is the single most beautiful comment you've ever posted.

But seriously, we've removed lead from nearly everything else in our lives. Using it on wheel weights doesnt really make much sense anymore.

[Michael]

Obviously the Terminator didn't have a say in this one.

I think it's fucking asinine.

That's like banning guns because they CAN kill people.

I'm reminded of this:

http://www.dhmo.org/

[dantheman]

i apologize for my comment, i was really drunk when i posted that.

[Narcissistic]

Obviously the Terminator didn't have a say in this one.

I think it's fucking asinine.

That's like banning guns because they CAN kill people.

I'm reminded of this:

http://www.dhmo.org/

No it's not.

Guns cannot kill anything. I've never seen a gun get up, load itself, walk into a place and kill someone. Lead is poisonous all by itself. True enough there's probably not enough lead to do any real damage from wheel wieghts but, Why risk it? PLus it'll create new jobs. There's going to have to be people who collect lead only wieghts, and places to safely recycle or dispose of the lead. And places to start manufacturing new metal wheel wieghts.

[Michael]

By your reasoning, lead can't kill people either.

Unless lead can get up, walk into a place, and kill someone.

[Michael]

Unless you're the kind of person that drinks unprocessed water out of flood control/storm drains.

Let's just ban lead shot while we're at it. I'm sure there's a duck somewhere that died because of lead shot...


...oh wait, that's the point.

[S54_M]

i apologize for my comment, i was really drunk when i posted that.

:rofl:

[meangreen94z]

why dont you write to the Center for Environmental Health since you're so damned concerned. Obviously if the court and tire companies have come to an agreement it must be a significant amount. what are you thinking, it should be around 300,000 lbs?

Do the math. I'd say on the average car a wheel will need 80 grams of weight inside and out to balance. Thats 320 grams on average per vehicle. By the best data I could find there are about 22 million vehicles in California(granted some are heavy line commercial vehicle). Thats 704 million grams or approx. 15,304,347lbs. That would essentially mean on average 1/30 of the weight on every vehicle would fall off. or 10.66 grams off EVERY VEHICLE, EVERY YEAR.

I balance tires almost every day as a BMW technician, I dont think I've ever seen an indication of a wheel weight coming loose that I can think of. Even hammer on weights driven on while the tires flat usually just shift on the wheel. Add the fact that the weights are coated and lead is extremely resistant to corrosion which would be required for it to break down far enough to pollute a water supply(lead pipes were used for decades on water supply lines and are still in regular existence on old homes ), and I think their contribution to lead contamination is unlikely.

Im not saying Lead is in actuality safe, but I think as usual California is way overblowing their calculation. The reason lead was so harmful in gas/paint was due to it being in a particle form, which would much more easily absorb in your bloodstream or watersupply

[al]

noble cause, but some of these environmentalists seem to be pulling stats out of their asses.

[azinwood]

lead wheel weights have been banned in europe and this same program is starting in japan and korea.

i dont think its unreasonable to assume that there is significant contamination from wheel weights.

http://www.cleancarcampaign.org/releases/20070824wwprop65.shtml

According to the U.S. Geological Survey(USGS), about 65,000 tons of lead wheel weights are in use on cars and trucks in the U.S., and it is estimated that at least 3% of wheel weights fall off of cars and trucks. USGS states that the discarded wheel weights "drop to the road surface where they become abraded by vehicle traffic, eventually becoming dissipated into the environment by wind and storm water." CEH estimates that approximately 500,000 pounds of lead was released into the environment in California in 2006 as a result of wheel weights being ejected from automobile wheels.

[al]

Oh I agree, but knee-jerk activists will make this number appealing to prompt reform.

[azinwood]

reform for what? using less lead? i'm all for it.

[al]

These lead weights that are being flung off wheels aren't all making their ways into local ponds and drinking reservoirs. Lead paint on toys and around the home, absolutely, get rid of it. Lead weights on wheels as a health hazard? Unlikely.

There's a bigger picture that people don't see. More expensive steel and/or zinc. $35 tire balancing. Tetanus outbreaks because shops used rusty iron weights instead. People dumping lead stockpiles into landfills creating an even bigger environmental problem. This is why I don't follow environmental hype.