S'pose I've never given it much thought. Though I've watched tire techs placing them on my wheels when balancing them after replacing tires, and noticed them alongside the highway when hitchhiking, I didn't really consider how these little chunks of lead end up toxifying our environment, and creating a serious health hazard for children.
The EPA banned lead paint back in the seventies when I was a kid, and even then I was aware of the health hazard old paint chips created--though as an avid fisherman as a child into my early adult years, I handled plenty of lead fishing weights, and even put them in my mouth to bite off excess fishing line at times. Nonetheless, lead is one of oh so many environmental toxins folks just don't think about these days.
"Lead poisoning can cause severe health effects including damage to the liver, kidneys, brain, nerves, bones and blood. Children are especially at high risk. Toxic levels of lead can cause permanent learning disabilities, retardation and even brain damage in young children. In adults, lead poisoning can cause high blood pressure and reproductive problems. In pregnant women, the fetus is particularly vulnerable to lead’s toxic effects.
Early symptoms include:
Fatigue
Pallor
Malaise
Loss of apetite
Irritability
Sleep disturbances
Sudden behavioral change
Developmental regression
More Serious Symptoms include:
Clumsiness
Muscular irregularities
Weakness
Abdominal Pain
Persistent vomiting
Constipation
Changes in consciousness
High blood pressure" (from leadcheck.com)
Well, recently a coalition of environmental groups have called for the EPA to ban lead wheel weights, which after falling off end up being ground into a powder and creating streets and neighborhoods that are a hazard to kids brains. Makes sense to call for this ban, but it seems it should logically follow that lead fishing weights should be banned as well, and lead bullets, too.
These sorts of everyday poisons that most give little thought to on a daily basis are vitally important to consider and remediate if this world is to remain sustainable into the forseeable future. Clean water, air and soil are vital for the survival of the human race, as well as for so many wonderful creatures with whom we share this planet. Sure, CO2 emmisions are an important issue, but the other toxins that are more immediately hazardous to life ought to take a higher status in our fight for a clean and healthy environment.
Check out the link below for an article on the hazard of lead wheel weights, and please consider contacting the EPA to voice your concerns regarding this issue, for the health and wellbeing of children and the environment generally.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/wheel_weights_f.php
http://www.epa.gov/epahome/comments.htm
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