Guess what? This affects you and I and pretty much everyone else. You know those little wheel weights that are fastened to the rims of your wheel in order to balance the tires (if you don’t, now you do)? Well, a story published by the New York Times explains how the EPA plans to remove millions of pounds of lead, i.e. those small wheel weights, from the environment.
Guess what? This affects you and I and pretty much everyone else. You know those little wheel weights that are fastened to the rims of your wheel in order to balance the tires (if you don’t, now you do)? Well, a story published by the New York Times explains how the EPA plans to remove millions of pounds of lead, i.e. those small wheel weights, from the environment. The EPA launched the National Lead Free Wheel Weight Initiative (NLFWWI) targeted at reducing the use of lead wheel weights by December 2011.

And, by the way, the little wheel weights add up to a whole bunch of lead. According to the EPA, about 50 million pounds of lead are used in wheel weights each year. The EPA tells us that of that amount, about 1.6 million pounds comes flying off wheels when you hit potholes, for instance, then get ground down, with the toxin eventually finding its way into the air, in the water supply, even into farmers’ fields. So what do you folks think about this? Solutions?