The use of lead in cars accounts for the largest remaining source of lead pollution, says a report released this summer. One car component, the lead starter battery, is responsible for the majority of current lead use in the world.

Getting the Lead Out: Impacts of and Alternatives for Automotive Lead Uses, jointly released by MEC member group the Ecology Center and New York-based Environmental Defense, documents the release of lead into the environment resulting from automobile manufacturing, use and disposal.

The report calls on the automotive industry to phase out lead use in cars, most notably in the starter battery, and to take responsibility for ensuring the recovery and proper management of lead used in cars. The report finds that the North American automobile industry is responsible for the release or transfer each year of more than 300 million pounds (136,508 metric tons) of lead through mining, smelting, manufacturing, recycling and disposing of lead-containing automotive components -primarily batteries -and through normal vehicle use.

Over its lifetime, a car uses as much lead as a house with lead paint, which has been banned for decades. Lead pollution associated with autos gets into the air and soil when lead is produced or recycled for use in cars, and water may be polluted from the disposal of batteries and autos or when wheel weights are lost on roadways.

"Automobiles are responsible for a majority of lead pollution in North America, or approximately 16 pounds of lead per vehicle over its lifetime," said Jeff Gearhart, report author and Clean Car Campaign Research Director for the Ecology Center.

To download a copy of the report, please visit: http://www.ecocenter. org/releases/20030723 leadreport.shtml .