The big danger from lead would come from inhaling it. The concern would be that these weights may have been battered by vehicles running over them…may be crumbly or flaking. But if the bucket is just sitting there…a 100 feet away–I wouldn’t think that anyone would be in extreme danger. Just something your friend might want to be aware of, that’s all…
Thanks Mr. Frink. Strangely, it sounds like an asbestos issue: not dangerous unless old, crumbly, and flaking. Of course, if he had an asbestos collection, I would’ve kicked him out like Puck.
Not to downplay the danger of lead, but if you have drapes in your living room, the weights that keep them hanging nicely are likely made of lead, as are fishing sinkers, bullets, etc.
The youngest boy is pushing thirty, now. About a year ago I started kidding him about the drifts of batteries that he’d leave behind him. I started calling them Hisname-poo. They were AA and AAA, and I have lost track of the devices that they came from. If he borrowed the van, I’d find a few in the arm rest, or the ash tray, or the cup holders. I’d find stashes around the house.
After having it brought to his attention, he started leaving them in a pile on my desk, to be neater about it. And because the easiest way to dispose of them properly was for me to take them in to work.
The drift of batteries has slowed in the last few months. I think that means that most of his stuff is rechargeable now. So I’ve shifted to calling empty water bottles Hisname-poo. We’ll see how that works.
Modern wheel balancing weights are NOT made out of lead.
Back to brushing my teeth with wheel weights.
They are a very common metal object that rolls downhill, does not float, and takes awhile to degrade. It’s very possible that if you are swapping batteries outdoors and drop one, it will roll into the gutter (which are positioned so that water would flow into them) before you could catch up to it. I bet some of those batteries were dropped as new.
I can confirm that the streets/subways of New York are lousy with batteries.
I sort of like the theory that says this is just a particularly stable form of litter, that is no more or less common that other forms of litter. On the other hand, I see people littering all the time and I’ve never seen anyone toss a battery.
What are they made of? The ones I’ve found recently look like lead. - I realise there are other malleable, greyish-silver metals and alloys, but which one?
I will tentatively suggest that part of the reason the OP keeps seeing discarded batteries is some kind of confirmation bias thing - once you’ve really noticed them, you can’t help noticing them. I did exactly the same thing with lost gloves.
Of course that’s not the whole story - the things have to be there for you to see them, but the point is, there are a range of other common objects you might find discarded with the same or greater frequency as batteries - I think you’re seeing them everywhere partly because you’re looking for them.
Depends. If they’re from a boy’s cars, then most likely baseball cards and clothespins.
If from a girl’s car, then sugar and spice, etc.
To those, you can add portable CD players. I have a crapload of those that run on AA batteries.
Yeah, but nowadays, you’re just as likely to find the portable CD player in the gutter as the batteries it runs on. If not obsolete, they’re certainly on the endangered appliance list.
Mostly steel or zinc alloys. I know this because I also collect wheel weights (well I did) to use to melt down and make my own fishing sinkers and jigheads and there’s no way a little electric burner in the garage is going to melt steel or zinc. Lead is getting increasingly expensive, as any fisherman or shooter who reloads his own rounds can tell you.
Cite? Everything I’ve read suggests that other than California, which is phasing them out by 2009, they are mostly lead.. From the EPA link:
Those inside the Duracell bunny don’t have a choice in the matter.
You’re definitely right here—it’s not like I’m wading through batteries when I walk to the bus. But, like wheel weights, cigarette butts, crumpled take-out menus, and newspaper scraps, batteries are consistent pieces of litter in the City. The other items made sense to me; batteries, for some reason, didn’t, if only because I’ve seen people discard all the others.
It’s because the responsible party are the magical battery fairies, who are supposed to surreptitiously seed gutters with an assortment of batteries. Usually, this goes unnoticed as most people assume it’s other *people *who are discarding the batteries. But some are much too clever to fall for that ploy.
Night-time roving dildo squads. I can say no more.
Whoa, I just upgraded to one (but held on to my portable cassette player too).