Lead wheel wheel weight may become a thing of the past, as the Environmental Protection Agency wants them gone by 2011.
Lead weights, which are used to keep tires balanced, have been with us since the Great Flood. However the EPA, wants the auto industry to switch to steel weights, as lead is a health hazard.
"This is great news for the environment," says Susan Parker Bodine, assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "You want the consumer to know there are safer alternatives available and ask for them."
During the practice rounds of the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix the Grand Prix, Bridgestone Americas Holding Corp. (pictured), is experimenting with weights from 3M that are made of plastic and metal to balance the tires.
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Next morning you wake up the EPA will be saying gasoline engines are a health hazard, and we should replace gasoline engines with some magical power source.
Blasted EPA!
I seriously question crap like this. In 29 years of driving, I have never lost a balance weight from a wheel.
Sounds like junk science to me.
I've had weights lost from wheels before. I don't know if it was because of poor installation or just something else (and at least once was because of wheel rash by my wife). I've also seen them laying around parking lots.
As far as how bad the situation actually is, I wouldn't expect to see a whole LOT of them lost, so in that regard this is a bit nonsensical sounding.
I've seen plenty of fallen wheel weights, so I won't question that. I usually recycle them into sinkers for fishing, actually.
DON'T USE THEM AS SINKERS! You might poison the lakes for the rest of us! Oh wait... every other weight and sinker is also made of lead. I digress. So now instead of $10.50 to balance a tire, the cost will be $15.00 to counter the higher cost of the steel weights. I see no problem using lead weights. What about all the mercury and toxic metals in our computers, LCD TV and don't forget those exhaust fumes coming out the back end of your car too...