UC Irvine News Brief: UCI recognized for reducing use of lead wheel weights on campus vehicles
Environmental Protection Agency program honors university for replacing 300 pounds of the toxic devices with steel versions.
UCI’s fleet management department was recently lauded by the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities for reducing lead use in campus vehicles by 300 pounds. NPEP, a program of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, encourages the replacement of lead wheel weights with steel. The weights are clipped to the rims of automobile wheels to balance the tires. Lead weights that fall off are washed into storm drains and end up in waterways or are gathered during street cleaning and dumped in municipal landfills. Susceptible to atmospheric corrosion, they increase people’s chance of lead exposure. In addition to swapping them out for steel wheel weights on its fleet vehicles, UCI ran a rebate program for campus faculty, staff and students who replaced their wheel weights.