Lead wheel weights being phased out for steel

No one told Mike Brown to stop using lead wheel weights. He did because it made sense.

Brown, owner of Iowa City Tire and Dodge Street Tire, phased out the use of lead weights earlier this year, replacing them with steel.

Wheel weights are clipped to tire rims to balance the tires and prevent vibration at high speeds. Lead weights are favored because they are cheap, heavy and easy to work with.

They're also dangerous to the environment.

Lead weights falling off tire rims are one of the largest ongoing releases of lead into the environment, according to students Brennan Nelson, Justin Roth, and Jathan Kron. The three are members of Team DeadWeight.

The students won the first ever Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge in May. All three were in Hector Ibarra's West Branch Middle School science class last year. Roth and Kron, both 13, are eighth graders at West Branch. Nelson, 13, is in eighth grade at Southeast Junior High in Iowa City.

Team DeadWeight encourages motorists and tire dealerships to switch to steel wheel weights. The project led to the ban of lead weights in West Branch city and school vehicles, and inspired Brown to follow suit. It also garnered support among state legislators.

“You couldn't come up with a more honest broker than a middle school student,” said Rep. Nate Willems, D-Lisbon.

Three bills regarding lead wheel weights stalled in last year's legislative session, but the students hope for a different outcome this year. And this time they have national backing.

Team DeadWeight visited the United Nations headquarters in New York City this summer to present its research to U.N. scientists. The Environmental Protection Agency recently accepted a petition from environmental and public health organizations to begin rulemaking to ban lead wheel weights, reversing a 2005 decision.

Team DeadWeight was among those credited for igniting the change.

“It's exciting to know that our project has gone as far as the national level,” Nelson said.

Four states - Washington, Vermont, Maine and California - have passed bills banning lead wheel weights.

Those in favor of the ban emphasize environmental benefits. Those against stress finances.

Steel costs more than lead - about 20-cents per weight - so there is a price to making the switch, Kron said. The Iowa Automobile Dealers Association lobbied against the ban saying the impact would be immediate and costly. While the association's legislative committee has not met to discuss their stance on this year's issues, President Gary Thomas said the group recognizes the benefit of steel weights.

“We would need a little lead time to be able to react,” he said. “A phase in makes sense.”

Brown is the first tire business owner in Iowa to switch to steel. The change added a couple hundred dollars to his monthly overhead, but Brown hasn't raised prices. Instead, he's attracted new business by being environmentally friendly.

“I'd like to see it so that other people do it not because people are telling them to, but because it's the right thing to do,” Brown said.