The EPA and lead wheel-weights. I want your two cents!

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Beagle-zebub

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http://www.ehponline.org/members/2000/108p937-940root/root-full.html

Give me your thoughts on this thing. It's a report I was linked to as a response to my inquiries to EPA people about the alleged hazards of lead wheel-weights.

One thing I'm wondering about is whether the grinding of these wheel weights actually turns them into dust, as the report asserts. That seems...inconsistent with my understanding of the nature of soft metals.
 
I would be much more concerned about the gazillion cubic tons of lead dust along roadsides & in yards, deposited by the use of leaded gasoline for the better part of the 20th century!

How many dang wheel weights get lost and ground up by passing cars anyway?

If I saw one laying in the road, I would probably stop and pick it up to make bullets out of it!

rc
 
After playing with lead soldiers probably painted with lead paint years ago in a lead house.

The Human Body will process that lead if it is in airbourne dust form and send it into the blood and it will be deposited and accumulate as a metal all your life. There is no way to remove or reduce the amount accumulating in your body.

You can switch to a non lead ammo or something and quit using lead all together... but it is such a elementry metal necessary to our world and way of living it's hard to not use lead.

In the mean time cast em. Civil War Battlefields are probably polluted as far as the EPA is concerned. As far as IM concerned, it's hallowed ground.
 
If people would teach their kids not eat the paint off their cribs and window sills and if reloaders would quit sucking their thumbs when reloading we wouldn't have a problem with a natural occuring eliment in nature. This fear of lead is overrated. I fear lead flying at over 500 fps more then injesting it.
 
You can switch to a non lead ammo or something and quit using lead all together...
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That's probably the underlaying motivation of the EPA and other tree-hugging organizations.

If they can accomplish outlawing lead in everyday uses like wheel weights, then they can outlaw lead in bullets & shot too.

The alternative metals are too expensive to shoot, so people would give up shooting & gun ownership in very very large numbers.

Just another form of "back-door" gun control in my opinion.

rc
 
rcmodel I am all in agreement there. Hence my battlefield comment.

The problem is making sure that we dont get eased off our 2A rights as a Nation before we understand what they are trying to do. Who "They" is? I dont know yet. But I can start with those in Government who work against 2A rights.
 
The EPA is currently pushing to have lead wheel-weights completely phased out of use, so if we want to stop that from happening, we're gonna need to get in gear.
 
Actually , chelation therapy is the chemical stripping process used to remove lead from the human body. It is not very pleasant and can be necessary for several weeks of treatments.
 
Much ado about nothing, I've been casting since the 60's and have no problem. I get checked every 6 months when I have my reg. physicals. No problem.

Main thing is washing and not eating or drinking while around lead.
Use alittle common sense.
 
Range lead, will still be available for years, lots of shooters have been stockpiling "myself encluded" for years. Probably couldn't shoot it all up anyway.
 
Funny thing, I work at a rather large refinery. And as of today we still put large amouts of Lead in Aviation fuel. Yes, this is the same stuff that goes into all those jet planes flying over your kids schools and parks.

By the way, we pump this stuff out by the thousands of barrels a day. So go figure.
 
As I mentioned, much ado about nothing. Oh yes and remember its ALL NATURAL, so it must be good for you.

The American people as a whole will believe anything as long as the media keeps hammering away at it.

Mayhaps we need some CHANGE TO BELIEVE IN.
 
Mayhaps we need some CHANGE TO BELIEVE IN.
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If you're referring to "king Hussein" then you're wrong. He will sign any bill that comes through his socialist congress. "Especially some thing for the environment". If a ban-all-the-lead bill gets passed, he will make a big deal about signing it!
 
What do you plan to do when lead wheel weights become a thing of the past?
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I'm up to around 1,200 pounds now so hopefully by the time you can't get any more I will be up around 3,000 pounds and that will last the rest of my life.
Rusty
 
With all the new electric cars that are in the stimulus pack we will not soon be getting rid of lead.
What happens is it gets put on a big boat and set to China and they recycle it in a very non ecological way and send it back to us all nice and shinny. If more of the Greens could just see the real face of recycling and how we did it much safer here we would have more jobs and industry.
We need to get away from this out of site out of mind mentality.
When the news picks up a story about lead the air on indoor ranges or leaching BACK into the ground but ignores the smokestacks over seas we are being fed a crock.
 
Ya rusty we're of the same mindset.
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I figure as long as they are free I might as well get greedy and get all I can while I can.:D Another thing some of you might want to check out is the lead foil from dental x-rays. I got a bucket from my dentist but haven't had a chance to smelt it or test the hardness yet.
Rusty

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I dont even have a casting set up yet and I have been bit hard by the lead hording bug.

In the industry I work in (theatre) some venues use 35-45lb lead bricks as counterweights for moving light and scenery systems. I have been on a weight loading deck with about 15,000 lbs of pure lead bricks sitting up there with me. The urge to try and stick one down my pants and (try) to casually walk out is almost over powering at times.

But as with most things a lot of theatres are trying phase the lead bricks out so I have tried to impress in the memory of my assorted bosses that when the day comes to please call me first as I will haul away all that nasty stuff for free just because I am a nice guy like that.
 
Just another form of "back-door" gun control in my opinion.
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Bingo. It's not about the children or the whales or the big buzzards. It's about ammunition. As far as lead wheelweights go..."they" know what we do with'em, and they mean to put a stop to it.

"We may not be able to get your guns, but we'll damn sure get your ammunition."

--Sarah Brady--
 
hithard;
I hope your'e not a petroleum engineer!
Jet engines don't use 100LL aviation gasoline. Jets typically use JET-A, (=no lead). Piston engine aircraft typically use 100LL, which is used in much lower quantities by the industry. The EPA is also wanting to phase out leaded aviation GASOLINE, but due to engineering issues with most piston aircraft engines, there is no suitable substitute. Even so, the lead contributed to the environment by leaded avgas has been determined to be insignificant by numerous studies. Another example of the "runnaway nanny-state".....protecting us from ourselves.......

(Comm. pilot/flight instructor)
 
Children's lead levels have been dropping since the 70's and continue to do so. Fortuitous that this article happened to be in my newsreader this morning.

I think the concern is genuine. However, what degree wheel weights really contribute I can't say. If I catch my kids drinking from the gutter they will have larger concerns than whatever lead they just ingested.

It seems to me a simpler and faster approach to protecting our youth would be to push vitamin-C supplements. Then if they do accidentally ingest some lead, absorption will be mitigated.

This leads us back to the idea that, while removing lead from paint, toys, and perhaps gasoline were all good things, lets not throw out the baby with the bath water. There are plenty of things lead is very useful for without causing undue concern.
 
However, what degree wheel weights really contribute I can't say.
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Practically none. The notion of wheelweights falling off and being ground into powder by cars running over them is absurd. Only a very small percentage simply fall off the wheels, and those that do aren't ground up. Lead is malleable, and just gets mashed flat. Even bullets made from wheelweights don't turn into powder on impact with steel targets...even at magnum handgun level velocities. It will shatter into relatively large chunks.

Over the last 3.5 decades, I'd be afraid to guess how many tons of wheelweights that have been morphed into bullets in my moulds...and I've shot nearly all of'em. I regularly mine used bullets from the berms and the fragments of same from around the steel target bays at my range...in order to *ahem* be a responsible and *cough* conscientious recycler. :)
 
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