Lead or Mercury Contained Wheel Weights Banned

Posted on May 19, 2009 - Filed Under Automotive

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 tire and wheel packages 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, 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 and wheel 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.

All of the state bills/laws were sponsored and/or co-sponsored by National Caucus of Environmental Legislators’ participants.

Comments

Leave a Reply

LostHawk