Quantity of Lead Released to the Environment in New Jersey in the Form of Motor Vehicle Wheel Weights |
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Authors: | Aucott Michael Caldarelli Adriana |
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Institution: | (1) New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Trenton, NJ, USA |
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Abstract: | Lead is a well-known pollutant with documented toxicity. Lead-containing weights used to balance motor vehicle wheels are
regularly lost from vehicles and enter the environment. Lead weights deposited on roadways in the vicinity of Trenton, NJ
were gathered and measured from February 2006 to January 2009. Measurements included loss of mass from specific weights exposed
to traffic. Extrapolation of the results to the entire state suggests that approximately 12 tons per year of lead in the form
of wheel weights are deposited on New Jersey roadways, and that approximately 40 kg of lead enters the environment in the
form of small particles formed from the abrasion and grinding action of traffic on weights deposited on roadways. This quantity
of small particles is much less than the approximately 60 tons per year of lead estimated by an earlier study to enter New
Jersey in precipitation, some of which may result from the combustion of leaded aviation fuel. The quantity is also likely
small compared with the fluxes of lead into the environment that still continue from leaded paint and with the residue of
finely dispersed lead from historical uses of leaded gas in motor vehicles that remains in the environment. The quantity of
lead released to the environment in the form of wheel weights appears likely to decline in the future because of legislation,
voluntary phase-outs by manufacturers, and new trends in wheel technology |
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