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NPEP Success Story
The City of Oxnard joined NPEP in January, 2008 and set an NPEP goal to eliminate lead use in its tire shop by the end of the year.
The City of Oxnard's Fleet Services Division is responsible for over 900 vehicles and pieces of equipment, performing maintenance and repairs on everything from police cars to refuse trucks. A certified California "Green Shop", Fleet Services has been recognized for strong pollution prevention efforts and is always looking for new maintenance techniques that are of less impact to the environment. One new technique that has paid off handsomely and reduced use of one of the US EPA's 31 Priority Chemicals is replacement of lead wheel weights. During the course of a year, Fleet Services changes approximately 2,300 tires on the City fleet. In order to keep those tires balanced and eliminate any unsafe vibration, lead weights are typically installed on the wheels when tires are changed. For many years, the only available type of wheel weights were made of lead.
In order to eliminate the use of these lead weights, standard in the automotive industry, we had to find a suitable substitute. We chose lead for this reduction because studies have shown that lead exposure is harmful, and especially so to young children and pregnant women. Even low level lead exposure may harm the intellectual development, behavior, size and hearing of infants.
Our elimination of lead use was very straightforward. We researched and found that wheel weights were now becoming available in a steel composition, as opposed to lead. We located a source of the new steel weights and ordered a small sample for testing. Once they arrived, we tested them on several vehicles, to ensure they would balance properly and stay on the wheel. We also wanted to compare pricing.
We faced hurdles of acceptance and of pricing. The lead weights have been standard in the automotive industry for decades, and were what our technicians were comfortable with. Additionally, steel weight pricing was 1 1/2 times that of lead and funds are tight. However, after testing our technicians found no differences in installation, performance, or longevity with the steel weights and accepted them quickly. The funding was judged by management to be an acceptable tradeoff for the environmental benefits gained, so our conversion was approved.
Making this change was not that difficult once our employees saw the replacement steel weights worked as well as the lead ones. As with any other change, involve your employees and do your research upfront.
We have eliminated the use of lead wheel weights in favor of steel weights, approximately 260 pounds of replacement lead weights annually. Additionally, many of the lead weights fall off in use, adding lead to the road and highway environment...we have eliminated this source of pollution from our vehicle fleet as well.