California is formally seeking a ban on the use of lead wheel weights under Senate Bill (SB) 757. Lead is the material of choice in wheel weights used to balance tires and wheels on motor vehicles. According to the bill, motor vehicles shed about a half-million pounds of lead a year in California alone. The weights are often pulverized by road traffic into fine dust that can wash into waterways and tracked into homes and businesses. A known toxin, lead can cause brain and nervous system damage in humans; young children are especially vulnerable.

In 2008, Chrysler and three lead wheel weight makers agreed to phase-out leaded wheel weights in California. Now, SB 757 will formalize a complete ban on leaded wheel weight use. Washington and Maine have also introduced legislation in 2009 to eliminate them. A number of companies have voluntary agreed to reduce—but not ban—lead wheel weights under a U.S. EPA initiative.

Consumer Reports views the elimination of lead wheel weights as a sensible move to protect the environment and public health, more than offsetting the modest additional cost of using non-toxic wheel weights.     

—Gene Petersen

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