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.
