THE HAZARD OF LEAD CONTAMINATION IN AN URBAN SETTING TO HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT: DISTRIBUTION OF LEAD WHEEL WEIGHTS AND IMPACT ON ROADSIDE SOILS

High concentrations of lead in the environment are directly related to the traffic volume of urban highways (EPA, 2009). In its National Lead Free Wheel Weight Initiative, the EPA acknowledged that 12.5 million pounds of lead from automobile wheel weights is uncontrolled in the environment, and that 1.6 million pounds of lead fall off of the wheels of automobiles in urban areas each year. The wheel weights remain in the streets are ground up and turned into lead dust. The small lead particles become air born or suspended in rain water run-off which can contaminate roadside soils. The lead dust and the lead in soil comprise the greatest risk to children thru ingestion (Chaney, 2003). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has determined that long term chronic exposure of moderate to low levels of lead can be dangerous to young children. According to the EPA accepted levels of lead particles contained in soil range from 400ppm to 1200ppm and levels as low as 40 micrograms of lead contained in dust per square foot in a home or business is dangerous. In areas where environmental conditions are acidic (pH<5) lead becomes unstable and the secondary minerals that form from the weathering of lead can become mobile contaminating surrounding soil (Dermatas, 2004). The goal of this research is to bring about public awareness of the hazards of lead contamination in the environment from lead wheel weights.

The purpose of this study is to determine the amount of lead that is being deposited along urban roadsides as lead wheel weights. Starting in 2009, lead wheel weights were collected 50 times from Whitesburg, Cedartown, and Carrollton, Georgia. There were 889 lead wheel weights collected with a total weight of 21.7kg. In 2010 two streets in Powder Springs and one street in Douglasville with a combined length of 2.8 miles were added to the collection area. Lead wheel weights were collected 13 times along the three roads. 346 lead wheel weights were collected with a total weight of 7.82kg. There also were 12 soil samples taken from 4 different locations along a 1.5 mile length of road in the study area of Powder Springs. Analysis was done on the samples to determine lead. Wheel weights, collected from Powder Springs and Douglasville, were examined with the scanning electron microscope to determine the degradation of the lead wheel weights.