With Europe going crazy with RoHS and lead-free-ness, we are still polluting the earth with over 500,000 pounds of lead each year over here in the U.S. from lead wheel weights that go on cars.
Why is this so important?
Well, lead is poisonous and we should do everything from using lead, especially if that might end up in the dirt.
Auto manufacturers/service technicians are now forced to moved to new metals such as steel and other metal alloys but we should have done this 2 years ago!
Sometimes the auto manufacturers are so concerned with money, they don’t really give a rat’s as* about the environment.
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.
via autoblog, businessweek
