"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
January 21, 2010
State Regulation of Lead Wheel Weights
Currently, six states have passed legislation or implemented regulations
aimed at curbing or eliminating the use of lead wheel weights.
California – In 2009 a bill was signed into law prohibiting the manufacture,
sale, or installation of wheel weights that contain more than .1%
lead.
11
Maine – In 2009 Maine passed a law intended to phase out the use of lead
wheel weights. Effective January 1, 2011 the use, sale and distribution of wheel
weights containing lead or mercury is prohibited. The sale of vehicles equipped
with wheel weights that contain lead or mercury is prohibited beginning on
January 1, 2012.
12
Minnesota – In 2009 the Minnesota Department of Administration adopted a
mandate that tire dealers use only wheel weights that do not contain lead or
mercury when servicing vehicles in the state fleet beginning October 1,
2009.
13
Oregon – The Oregon Department of Transportation instituted a program to
phase out the use of lead wheel weights in the state vehicle fleet. As tires are
replaced lead wheel
weights will be replaced with steel wheel weights. At least 50% of
the state's fleet will be lead-free by 2012 and 90% will be lead-free by
2017.
14
Vermont – In 2008 Vermont enacted a law that prohibited the use of
lead wheel weights in state vehicles beginning January 1, 2010 and banned them
from new motor vehicles as of September 1, 2011.
15
Washington – In 2009 Washington’s enacted a law that prohibits the
use of wheel weights containing more than .5% lead or mercury when repairing or
replacing tires after January 1, 2011.
16
Proposed Legislation in Iowa
Currently, Iowa has no law addressing the use of lead wheel
weights. The following bills were, however, introduced in the 2009 legislative
session.
HF 384, introduced by Representatives Willems, Kaufmann, Reichert
and Jacoby, would prohibit the sale of motor vehicles equipped with lead wheel
weights. During the servicing, repair or maintenance of motor vehicles the bill
would prohibit the installation of lead wheel weights and require lead wheel
weights to be replaced with wheel weights composed of something other than lead.
HF 384 was referred to the Transportation Committee and is currently assigned to
a subcommittee.
HF 395, introduced by Representatives Kaufmann, Willems and
Jacoby, would mandate that lead wheel weights be replaced in the servicing,
repair, or maintenance of state-owned vehicles. It was referred to the
Transportation Committee and is currently assigned to a subcommittee.
HF 785, a successor to HF 395, would require the director of the
Department of Administrative Services to establish a procedure for encouraging
the use of wheel weights made of materials other than lead in the servicing,
repair, or maintenance of state-owned vehicles where wheel weights composed of
materials other than lead are readily available. It was referred to the
Transportation Committee.
SF 220, introduced by Senator Bolkcom, would mandate that lead wheel weights
be replaced with alternative metals during the service, repair, or maintenance
of state-owned vehicles. It would prohibit the sale of motor vehicles equipped
with lead wheel weights after December 31, 2010. It would also prohibit the
installation of lead wheel weights and require wheel weights made of materials
other than lead be installed during the service, repair or maintenance of all
vehicles. An individual in violation of this law would be guilty of a simple
misdemeanor punishable by confinement for no more than 30 days or a fine of
between $65 and $525 or both. It was referred to the Environment and Energy
Independence Committee and is currently assigned to a subcommittee.
8Bleiwas, D.I., 2006, Stocks and flows of lead-based wheel
weights in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2006–1111,
6 p. Retrieved 29 Oct 2009 from: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1111/2006-1111.pdf
10Letter from EPA to Jeff Gearhart, Ecology Center and Tom
Neltner, Sierra Club. 26 Aug 2009. Retrieved 29 Oct 2009 from:
http://www.leadfreewheels.org/
11SB 757. Retrieved 29 Oct 2009 from:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery
12An Act to Protect the Public Health and the Environment by
Prohibiting the Sale of Wheel Weights Containing Lead or Mercury. Retrieved 29
Oct 2009 from: http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/search_ps.asp
13Parisien, Lisa. "States Offer Model Approaches for Phasing Out
Lead Wheel Weights in the Environment." Retrieved 29 Oct 2009 from:
Lead wheel
weights banned in Maine, Vermont and Washington
May 15, 2009
Lead wheel weights used to balance tires and prevent shimmying at high
speeds are soon be a thing of the past with enactment of laws in Maine,
Vermont and Washington and pending legislation in California.
In
Washington, it will be illegal for those who sell new tires or rotate
existing tires to install wheel weights containing lead beginning January
1, 2011. The law also requires the use of “environmentally preferable”
wheel weights, which, according to news reports, will most likely be made
of zinc or a steel alloy. Washington’s bill, HB1033, was signed into law
on April 28, 2009.
Beginning January 1, 2011, Maine’s law
prohibits the use of lead or mercury-containing wheel weights when a tire
is replaced or rotated, and it bans the sale and distribution of lead or
mercury-containing wheel weights. In 2012, a person cannot sell a new car
in Maine if the wheel weights contain lead or mercury. Maine’s law, Public
Law 125, was signed this week, May 12, 2009.
Vermont’s legislature
passed a law, Act 193, last year that, among other lead-containing product
bans, prohibits the use of lead wheel weights in state vehicles beginning
January 1, 2010 and bans them from new motor vehicles starting September
1, 2011.
According to an article in the Spokesman Review, link
pasted below, the Washington Department of Ecology estimates that about 5%
of all lead wheel weights fall out while driving, leaving as much as 20
tons of lead on the side of the road or in parking lots. Lead is toxic and
has been linked to brain damage and other developmental and behavioral
problems, especially in children. Some tire dealers are already phasing
out lead wheel weights, according to the article.
A lawsuit
settlement with the three largest wheel weight manufactures will stop the
distribution of lead wheel weights in California by the end of 2009,
according to the Spokesman Review article. California State Senator Fran
Pavley is sponsoring legislation, SB757, that would codify the settlement
by prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or installation of lead wheel
weights in the state.
In Maryland this year, NCEL President
Delegate James Hubbard authored legislation, HB763, with Delegate Barbara
Frush and Delegate Dan Morhaim that would have banned installation of lead
weights for state vehicles by January 2011, for used vehicles by January
1, 2012, and for new vehicles by January 1, 2013. The bill did not pass.
In Iowa, State Senator Joe Bolkcom introduced a bill, SF220, that
would have prohibited, after December 31, 2010, the sale of a motor
vehicle equipped with lead wheel weights. During the servicing, repair, or
maintenance of a motor vehicle, the bill would have prohibited the
installation of lead wheel weights and required such wheel weights to be
replaced with wheel weights composed of materials other than lead. The
bill did not pass.
All of the state bills/laws were sponsored
and/or co-sponsored by National Caucus of Environmental Legislators'
participants. More information about this issue can be found by visiting
the following links:
TESTIMONY FROM THE CALIFORNIA CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
IN SUPPORT OF THE PROPOSED LEAD WHEEL BILL
Testimony in
Support of SB 757 for the Senate Environmental Quality Committee
April 20, 2009
By Michael Green,
Executive Director
Center for
Environmental Health
Summary
The toxicity
of lead is well studied and significant.
Lead wheel
balancing weights contribute an enormous amount of lead to the California
environment.
Viable
alternatives to lead wheel weights are readily available.
Many
companies in California
are already making the transition to lead-free technologies.
This bill
levels the playing field for all tire retailers and wheel weight
manufacturers.
This bill
supports American companies who are acting to protect the health of
Californians.
Thank you for the opportunity to support SB 757.
The Center for Environmental Health is proud to be a sponsor of this important
legislation.
Lead is
a stunningly toxic metal
A long list of problems has been linked to lead
exposure by the U.S. Public Health Service: lowered intelligence, behavior
problems, cancer, strokes, high blood pressure, kidney problems, anemia,
cavities, and delayed puberty. Children are particularly susceptible to lead’s
toxic effects.
While lead is a mineral that occurs naturally in our
soils, human activities, including the use of lead in wheel balancing weights,
have caused our exposure to lead to dramatically increase. Levels in our
environment are about a thousand times what they were a few hundred years ago.
A team of
physicians from the Mt Sinai School of Medicine and the Harvard School of
Public Health have estimated that the costs of lead poisoning in the United States
are $43.4 billion per year.
Lead wheel-balancing weights are
a significant source of environmental lead
According
to the U.S. Geological Survey, about 65,000 tons of lead wheel weights are in
use on the over 200 million cars and trucks that are driven in the U.S.
About 2,000 tons of these weights fall from vehicles every year and into
roadways. Most weights are lost on city streets when vehicles hit curbs,
bounce over potholes, stop or accelerate suddenly, or turn sharply. Once lost
from the vehicle, they are worn down by traffic, and the lead is spread around
by wind or water.
Based on
the number of miles that vehicles drive in urban California, or the number of
vehicles registered in the state, about half a million pounds of lead wheel
weights fall on California roadways every year.
The
California Department of Transportation monitors runoff from California highways for lead, and has found
that runoff water frequently exceeds drinking
water standards as well as surface water standards. Lead deposited on roadsides
while leaded gasoline was in use plus naturally occurring lead in roadside
soils can account for only a third of the lead found in highway runoff. The
balance (about two-thirds of the total) comes from lead wheel weights.
Better wheel balancing technology
is available
The most
common alternative products are made from zinc or steel. Steel wheel weights
are preferred because they can be easily and economically recycled with the
other steel components of automobiles. Zinc weights need to be separated from
steel components in order to be recycled. Also, zinc is toxic to aquatic life.
While no
technology is absolutely neutral in terms of its environmental impact, neither
steel nor zinc has the potent toxicity of lead.
Currently,
steel wheel weights are more expensive than lead wheel weights. An important
reason for this additional cost is that the manufacturers have recently
invested in the equipment to produce lead-free weights. As demand for steel
weights increases, economies of scale mean that the price differential will
decrease.
U.S. companies have committed to lead-free wheel
balancing
All major
U.S car manufacturers are currently using alternatives to lead wheel weights. As
a result of an agreement with the Center for Environmental Health, the two
largest wheel weight manufacturers have agreed to end the sale of lead wheel
weights in California
at the end of 2009. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s voluntary
National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative gives wheel weight manufacturers and
users the opportunity to publicly commit to ending the use of lead wheel
weights by the end of 2011 “to the greatest extent feasible.” Major tire
retailers including Bridgestone-Firestone, Goodyear, Costco, and Wal-Mart have
joined the NLFWWI.
We need a level playing field for
wheel weight sales in California
The
Center for Environmental Health was the plaintiff in litigation that lead to
agreements with the two largest wheel weight manufacturers for the California market to end
the sale of lead wheel weights in the state. In the discussions with the
companies that lead to the agreement, the manufacturers asked the Center for
Environmental Health to help them advocate for a state law that would end the sale
and use of lead wheel weights in California.
They are both American companies and they are concerned that without a state
law, they will lose market share to the many overseas wheel weight
manufacturers who can undersell them by offering lower-priced lead wheel
weights. Litigation with these overseas manufacturers is difficult. Most small tire retailers have not committed
to the transition away from lead wheel weights and, without this legislation,
represent a significant market for lead wheel weights.
Please protect
public health and create a level playing field for companies who are already
doing the right thing by supporting SB 757.
Science research team "Dead Weight" recognizes the
need to protect the public from exposure to lead hazards.
There are no federal regulatory controls governing use of lead
wheel weights. Environmental health hazards associated with lead
wheel weights are a preventable problem. People are exposed to
lead fragments and dust when lead wheel weights fall from motor
vehicles onto the nation's roadways and are then abraded and
pulverized by traffic. Lead wheel weights on and alongside roadways
can contribute to soil, surface and groundwater contamination and
pose hazards to downstream aquatic life.
Lead negatively affects every bodily system. While it is
injurious 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 public funds for health care and
special education. Irreversible damage to children and subsequent
expenditures could be avoided if exposure to lead is reduced.
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