The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it will not initiate rulemaking addressing the manufacture and distribution of lead wheel weights.
The agency’s analysis shows “that risks to children from lead wheel weights are significantly lower than described in the petition EPA received on this issue in 2009."
Specifically, the EPA estimates that dust from lead wheel weights "represents an extremely small fraction of a child’s overall residential lead exposure, even if the residence is near busy roads."
The EPA also has found that nine U.S. states, plus Canada, have banned lead wheel weights and the agency was informed "that vehicle manufacturers no longer install lead wheel weights on new vehicles sold in the U.S.”
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In April 2024, the EPA issued a request for public comment on the use of lead wheel weights, but reports that it did not receive “additional data” beyond what it had already considered.
The EPA’s preliminary assessment “shows extremely low risk associated with roadside exposure of lead wheel weights, even when making conservative assumptions. For example, EPA used studies that pre-date manufacturer phase out of lead wheel weights and likely overestimate the frequency of lead wheel weight use in the U.S.”
Commenting on the EPA’s decision, Gregory Parker, sales and marketing director for Wegmann Automotive North America, says “lead wheel balance weights have been a topic of discussion for more than 100 years, originally invented in the 1920s. Regardless of what material a shop chooses, lead or non-lead, the automotive market will never stop demanding quality products from proven suppliers.”
