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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Making Electric Cars May Be Hazardous Manufacturing Batteries Could Mean Releasing Lead

Associated Press

Widespread use of electric cars would reduce smog, but producing the lead-based batteries they now depend on would cause far more serious environmental problems, a researcher said today.

Emissions from mining, smelting and recycling the lead needed to make batteries for a large number of electric cars would expose those near industrial sites to toxic doses of lead, according to a study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.

“When we got the lead out of gasoline, it was a triumph for public health,” said Chris Hendrickson, one of the researchers. “I’d hate to see us slide back and release lots more lead in the environment.”

Electric cars owe their popularity in part to the Clean Air Act. California and other states are requiring the introduction of “zero emission” vehicles by 1998, with 10 percent of all new cars meeting the zero-emissions test by 2003.

The only zero-emission cars that are close to mass production are powered by electricity stored by conventional batteries.

In an article for the May 19 issue of the journal Science, engineers Hendrickson and Francis McMichael and economist Lester Lave examine the impact of emissions associated with lead-acid batteries.

According to their calculations, even taking into account advanced technology not yet available for electric cars, the production of batteries for an electric car would push six times as much lead into the environment as that emitted by a small automobile burning leaded gasoline, which has been phased out.