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Tampa Tribune
07/27/2003

TAMPA, Fla.--A duet of national environmental watchdogs declared war on lead
in cars last week, calling on auto manufacturers to find alternatives to
lead batteries they say pollute America's water and air. By 2014, a 51-page
report issued Wednesday says, auto makers should switch to lead-free
batteries. And by 2006, they should phase out other lead use in cars
altogether. Finally, the groups' far-reaching report urges, governments in
the United States and Canada should ban lead mining altogether. "In its
lifetime, a car uses enough lead to paint a house with highly toxic lead
paint," said Kevin Mills of New York-based advocacy group Environmental
Defense. "Automakers are not investing enough in safe alternatives." But
one
auto manufacturer warned that phasing lead out of cars in such a short time
could drive up the cost of the average car. Lead-free automobile batteries
can cost as much as $140, compared with about $50 for a standard battery.
"Sometimes the people who put out these reports are not very well versed in
the complexity of the auto industry and what it takes to actually do these
things," said Terry Cullum, director of Environment and Energy for General
Motors. Long-term exposure to lead and cadmium can result in brain, lung
and
kidney damage and is a suspected cause of cancer.

Mills' group, along with the Michigan-based Ecology Center, co-authored the
report, called "Getting the Lead Out: Impacts of and Alternatives for
Automotive Lead Uses." Its recommendations:

--Phase out traditional lead-acid car batteries by 2014, replacing them
with
more costly, but longer-lasting, nickel-metal hydride or lithium-ion
batteries.

--Phase out other uses of lead in automobiles by 2006. The average car has
27 pounds of lead in protective paint coatings, alloys, solder and
batteries. The tiny weights used to balance wheels alone dumps thousands of
pounds of toxic lead on roadways every year, environmentalists say.

--Make auto makers responsible for ensuring that lead used in cars is
properly recovered and managed.

-- Ensure that lead isn't released by industries that handle "end-of-life"
or discarded cars, such as auto salvage yards.

--Establish federal programs to "retire" lead use and eventually ban lead
mining. "We think the ultimate solution is to take lead out of the system
altogether," Mills said.

Jeff Gearhart of the Ecology Center said car batteries use 1.2 million tons
of lead a year. Although many discarded batteries are recycled, more than
46,000 tons of battery lead still end up in landfills annually, he said.
Even recycling lead batteries is an "inherently dirty" business, Mills
said.
In 1991, for example, state officials found lead contamination under a
144-unit apartment complex built on the site of a former battery recycling
plant in Temple Terrace. The property was later listed as a federal
Superfund site. "The history of lead smelting and processing is one that
has
left a long trail of of contaminated sites across the country," Mills said.

To see more of the Tampa Tribune -- including its homes, jobs, cars and
other classified listings -- or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.tampatrib.com Copyright © 2003 Tampa Tribune, Fla. Distributed
by
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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