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Tires in California to Roll Lead-Free by 2010

Toxic Substance Banned in Landmark Agreement

Bridgestone/Firestone is using alternatives to lead wheel weights in its company-owned retail tire stores. BFS photo

The Ecology Center and its allies in the battle to keep toxic substances out of consumer products and the environment recently celebrated a milestone California court decision.

The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) in early August announced that it reached a legal agreement with Chrysler and the three largest producers of automobile wheel bearing weights, requiring the companies to end the use of leaded wheel weights in California by the end of 2009. The agreement marks the first-ever legally binding statewide rule phasing out lead in wheel weights in the U.S., and will end the annual release of 500,000 pounds of lead into the environment in California, which occurs when wheel weights break off of automobile wheels.

Under the agreement, lead wheel weight suppliers Perfect Equipment Inc, Hennessey Industries, and Plombco Inc, will end shipments of leaded wheel weights into California by the end of 2009. Chrysler agreed to eliminate its use of leaded wheel weights on 55% of its automobiles by the end of the summer and to fully eliminate lead in wheel weights on cars intended for sale in California by July 31, 2009.

"This settlement represents the beginning of the end for lead wheel balancing weights in the U.S.," said Jeff Gearhart, Research Director at the Ecology Center.  "We fully expect dozens of states to follow California's leadership and ban the use of lead wheel weights." The Ecology Center has worked for several years to expose the problem of lead wheel weights and advocate for alternatives, while running the website www.leadfreewheels.org.

Last August, CEH launched its legal action against Chrysler and the three companies based on the threat to the state's drinking water from wheel weights that fall off vehicles and make their way into the state’s waterways. "Wheel weights have been identified as the largest new route of lead releases into the environment," said Michael Green, Executive Director of CEH. "By moving the industry away from leaded wheel weights, we are helping to keep the lead out of our kids' drinking water."

Lead wheel weights

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), about 65,000 tons of lead wheel weights are in use on cars and trucks in the U.S., and it is estimated that at least 3% of wheel weights fall off of vehicles. USGS states that the discarded wheel weights "drop to the road surface where they become abraded by vehicle traffic, eventually becoming dissipated into the environment by wind and storm water."

Washington, Maine and Massachusetts have considered similar legislation, but the CEH settlement creates the first binding statewide ban on shipments from the major wheel weight suppliers. Some municipalities have eliminated lead wheel weights on their local fleets, and the U.S. Air Force and Postal Service have taken action to eliminate lead wheel weights from their fleets.

Lead wheel weights have been banned in the EU since July 2005, and Japan and Korea are in the process of phasing them out, as well. In 2005, the Ecology Center petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Toxic Substance Control Act, calling for a federal ban on lead wheel weights. The EPA has refused to enact a ban, and instead continues to rely on voluntary industry action.

On August 29, the Ecology Center and Susan Parker Bodine, EPA's Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, joined IndyCar Series drivers and Bridgestone-Firestone representatives at the Detroit Grand Prix to announce the National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative. The announcement took place at a ceremony recognizing companies and government agencies that have pledged to significantly reduce the use of lead wheel weights by December 31, 2011.

Learn more about this issue by visiting www.leadfreewheels.org.

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Michigan State Representatives Need
Push on Toxic Flame Retardant Phaseout

TAKE ACTION!

TAKE ACTION ON deca-PBDE!

The Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health, a project started by the Ecology Center, strongly urges you to contact your representative in the Michigan House to support legislation to phase out deca-BDE, a commonly used flame retardant in many consumer items, from four types of products sold in the state. The legislation faces stiff opposition from out-of-state deca-BDE manufacturers.

HB 4465 would phase out deca-BDE in TVs, computers, mattresses and upholstered furniture, products for which safer alternatives are already in widespread use. In 2004, the Legislature voted nearly unanimously to ban products containing the closely related flame retardants penta-BDE and octa-BDE. It is now known that deca-BDE can break down into these banned toxic chemicals.

Deca-BDE, and the rest of the chemicals in the PBDE (polybrominated diphenyl ether) family, has been increasing dramatically in people in North America, including in the breast milk of women as well as in wildlife and fish in the Great Lakes. According to a recent report by Michigan's Interdepartmental Toxics Steering Group, "PBDEs are of significant environmental concern because they are toxic, bioaccumulative, and persistent. Levels in humans and wildlife are increasing exponentially."

One way humans are exposed to deca-BDE is when it migrates from common household products like TVs, mattresses, computers and furniture. It binds to household dust where it's readily accessible to kids, who live closest to the floor, frequently put their hands in the mouths, and whose brains and bodies are rapidly developing. Early evidence suggests children may accumulate higher levels of these toxic chemicals than adults.

Michigan's fire fighters (including the Michigan Professional Fire Fighters Union and the Michigan Association of Fire Chiefs) are supporting HB 4465 to protect fire fighters from the toxic by-products of deca-BDE combustion. They have noted that alternative flame retardants can meet fire safety standards.

Leading companies like Dell, HP, Samsung, Phillips, Sealy, Herman Miller, Steelcase and La-Z-Boy have all stopped adding deca-BDE to their products. The alternatives they use are typically safer for our kids and the environment. They also prevent fire fighters from exposure to the noxious by-products of deca-BDE combustion.

Don't hesitate; let your state representative know today that you want Michigan to finish the job it began in 2004 of protecting the Great Lakes and its residents from PBDE chemicals with the immediate passage of HB 4465.

The figures shown above are excerpted from “Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers: A Scientific Review with Risk Characterization and Recommendations,” a May 2008 report from the state’s Interdepartmental Toxics Steering Group. The full report (pdf) is available at www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/deq-tox-PBDEBackground_Paper-5-08_243976_7.pdf.

Learn more about deca-BDE by visiting the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health website.

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First Victory; Give Thanks for
New Federal Consumer Product Safety Act

Thank Congressman John Dingell for the recent passage of The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008!

The supporters of HealthyToys.org, a project of the Ecology Center, need your help to thank Congress, especially Congressman John Dingell (D-15), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, for the recent passage of The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

The new law restricts two dangerous chemicals, lead and phthalates, in toys. Over 100,000 parents and other concerned consumers weighed in with Congress, including those of you who took action through the HealthyToys.org website. Clearly your voices were more powerful than the chemical industry, which spent millions of dollars fighting to keep the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission just as ineffective as it has been for the past 30 years.

While we celebrate this victory, this important development is only the beginning of the full agenda we plan to bring to Congress to demand that toys and all children's products are free of all toxic chemicals.

Toxic chemicals in kids' products are receiving unprecedented attention, and Congress has started to act, but the work to protect children from toxic toys is far from over - there is still much more to do! It's not just lead and phthalates showing up in kids' toys, it's mercury, cadmium, arsenic, bromines, and other potentially hazardous chemicals.

The debate surrounding the CPSC bill laid bare our flawed federal system for regulating chemicals, which fails to protect human health and the environment. We need to hold Congress responsible for passing legislation to protect all Americans from unsafe chemical exposures in our daily lives.

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First Annual "HomeGrown Festival"

Saturday, September 13

 

Bring your appetite! It’s HomeGrown Festival time! Come on down to the Community High School field across from the Farmers’ Market in Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown district on Sat., Sept. 13, from 11 am to 4 pm. Bring the whole family and enjoy the sights, smells and flavors of fresh cuisine prepared by local chefs from locally grown food as well as kids’ activities, live music and entertainment, and a silent auction. Admission to the event is free, with tickets available for purchase on site for the various food tastings and activities.

In addition to fresh cuisine prepared by talented local chefs, the HomeGrown Festival will offer mini-workshops on topics such as container gardening and preserving. Farmers and vendors will teach about the foods they produce — ranging from honey to peaches to grass-fed beef. Special children’s activities will include lessons on growing vegetables.

For festival organizers, the event represents an opportunity to link farmers, restaurants, retailers and consumers. “It’s a chance for everyone to learn just how much great food is grown right here in our area, and discover how they can make a difference by supporting local food producers,” says Erica Kempter, founder and co-chair of the HomeGrown Festival. “We hope everyone will gain a new appreciation for the health, economic, and environmental benefits of buying local.”

Kempter, a local businesswoman and environmentalist, points out the recent increase in fuel prices has also raised awareness of the amount of energy that goes into growing, processing and transporting conventional food supplies. The impact, she says, is already evident in rising food prices and a growing concern about the potential effect on the environment of such high levels of energy use.

Food safety has also become an issue for consumers, explains festival co-chair Andy Petrovich. “There is growing interest in small-scale, community-based farming where fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat and poultry are produced without the use of commercial fertilizers, feed and drugs,” he says. “Recent outbreaks of e-coli and salmonella in large-scale shipments of produce have raised concerns about food that comes from anonymous sources. It’s nice to actually know who grows the spinach and carrots you eat!”

Plum Market of Ann Arbor is the principal sponsor of this year’s HomeGrown Festival, with substantial backing from Bello Vino Market, Crazy Wisdom Bookstore & Tea Room and Goetzcraft Printers, Inc. The Sierra Club of Huron Valley and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority are also actively supporting the event. Other sponsors include Downtown Home and Garden, Erica's Natural Gardening, People's Food Cooperative, Ann Arbor Branch of the Woman's National Farm & Garden Association, Zingerman's Community of Businesses, Eat Local Eat Natural, and Jackie Wright, Realtor with The Charles Reinhart Company. In-kind support is being provided by the Ecology Center, Nature & Nurture, LLC, Food System Economic Partnership, Slow Food Huron Valley (SFHV), and Think Local First (TLF)

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EcoLink — August/September 2008
An online publication of the Ecology Center

Editor: Ted Sylvester
Layout & Production: Melissa Sutton

Comments and questions are welcome.
Please send to EcoLink Editor

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