Bridgestone America Commits to National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative
By Scott Doggett August 29, 2008
Major tire maker Bridgestone America announced today that it will no longer use lead wheel weights.
The company, which operates 2,000 tire service stores across the U.S., made the announcement at a joint press conference in Detroit at which the federal Environmental Protection Agency called on businesses to voluntarily switch to steel weights when balancing wheels and tires.
The press conference served as the formal launch of the EPA's National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative. The weights are attached to wheels when tires are installed to counteract the combined effect of tire and wheel weight imbalances that can cause the wheel to wobble.
The trouble with lead weights is that they tend to fall off, get ground to lead dust by passing vehicles and eventually end up in groundwater supplies. In humans, lead particles can cause brain damage, birth defects and death.
The EPA's initiative follows a recent court decision that resulted in Chrysler and the three largest wheel weight makers in America agreeing to stop using lead weights in California by the end of 2009.
In its suit, the Oakland-based Center for Environmental Health maintained that errant tire weights are responsible for 500,000 pounds of lead being released into California's environment alone each year.
According to Jeff Gearhart, director of the Clean Car Campaign at the Michigan-based Ecology Center, lead wheel weights are the nation's largest unregulated source of new lead leaching into the environment.
Scott Doggett, Contributor
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