I guess the rules and stuff about metals and poisons and environment can be annoying sometimes, but it seems to be a good idea generally. There’s more and more people all the time and life expectancy has gone up 30 years since 1900. That’s mostly due to medicine, but being careful about the environment has something to do with it. The population of the US has doubled in my lifetime. So, I think we should save old stuff that still works, but I also think we need to be careful with what we make and spread around.
I recall a layover on the way overseas in 1971 at March AFB. We rented a car and drove out to see LA. The air was thick enough to butter on bread. There’s no question in my mind that we needed to begin to control all the crap we put into the environment.
But I also believe that the EPA is out of control, and exactly what needs to be controlled and to what extent has become questionable. I’m in favor of eliminating asbestos from brake pads because the overwhelming evidence from the medical community is that it kills. But I don’t know what these new symbols on brake pads are supposed to accomplish. Nobody orders brake pads based upon these symbols, or ever will. If there are proven hazardous materials in brake pads, they should simply be banned.
The whole issue of environmental regulations and automobiles is a deep river to wade in. But IMHO these leafy symbols are a joke. Or perhaps they’re a marketing attempt.
Can’t argue with that Wentwest. I should have been dead 20 years ago were it not for modern methods so I appreciate every day and medical expertise.
If you think the regulations that result in those differentiating symbols are ridiculous just be glad you’re not in any significant manufacturing business. It really started with RoHS and now includes REACH which is orders of magnitude more restrictive. For example RoHS was measured by homogenous weight in the smallest assembly. REACH is absolute measurement and encompasses 100s of additional substances. Both regulations originated in Europe. Then there is conflict materials…you play or you don’t sell…
Do ALL brake pads get these markings or just those sold in California? Does anybody care?
My impression from the link is that it’s unique to one manufacturer, which is why I thought it might be a marketing tool. I was unable to find any reference to any regulatory requirement for the markings.
Mark my vote as “don’t care”. I’d even go so far as to suggest that few people in the industry have ever seen or are aware of these markings. The populous in general clearly would not know or care. Most wouldn’t know a brake pad if it fell out of the sky at terminal velocity and broke their foot.
mountainbike
it is not unique to one specific manufacturer
I was just reading one of my professional trade magazines, and they mentioned these markings. They made no mention of any specific manufacturers, and it’s not restricted to California
I doubt that anyone on the planet other than the people who came up with the leaves are going to care one whit. It will always be a matter of “my brakes don’t work, price is acceptable, fix them”.
Personally, I’m just about iconed to death… 
Me too. The only one I appreciate more as the years go by is the icon for the men’s room. {
Consumers won’t care unless the shelves are empty because manufactures aren’t meeting the requirements.
From the trade news article posted by DB4690;
By 2014 in California and 2015 in Washington, all brake friction materials restricted to no more than 0.1% by weight of asbestiform fibers, chromium, lead and mercury and no more than 0.01% by weight of cadmium.
By 2021 in both states, copper in all brake friction materials must be less than 5% by weight.
By 2025, California law requires that copper must be less than 0.5% by weight. Washington will adopt a date for 0.5% by weight copper following a feasibility assessment.
"Mitigation in a house is really expensive though when you consider all the inside and outside paint and the pipes."
If you’ve got a 60+ y.o. house with lead soldered pipes, that lead’s LONG since “passivated.” The post-war couple that built the house took any risk for you. (By all means, have it tested, but don’t be surprised when it comes back clean.)
The new one that has all the Milquetoasts in a tither are garden hoses! (Something about lead from plasticisers.) Given that hoses don’t melt away after use tells me said plasticisers are only WEAKLY soluable in water…and likely require plenty of contact time to reach hazardous concentrations.
While I wouldn’t drink stagnant, hot water from a hose–that’s just gross!–I DO drink from my contractor’s hose, on the basis that transit time is insufficient to leach an appreciable quantity of anything into that cold, fresh water.
This is the first I’ve heard that garden hoses are toxic. What’ll they come up with next?
So now eggs are healthy again (recent news) but drinking from my garden hose will make me sick?
I give up. Might as well have a T-bone rare, with a few beers, a hooker, and a good cigar. I guess I’m gonna die anyway.
Do ALL brake pads get these markings or just those sold in California? Does anybody care?
The markings are there to indicate that the pads are compliant with state regulations and are legal to be sold there.
I give up. Might as well have a T-bone rare, with a few beers, a hooker, and a good cigar. I guess I’m gonna die anyway.
Sounds great. I’ll throw the steaks on, get the beer out of the fridge, and trim the cigars if you bring the hookers.
I haven’t heard the one about garden hoses. No doubt this is based on one of those studies that state if you drink water through a hose 24 hours a day for 9000 years there is a RISK of cancer.
It wasn’t too many decades ago that red M & Ms were little round death orbs…
I remember one time as a 12 year old child I was at my friends house in town and we were playing in the alley on a hot summer day, there was a garden hose running out into the alley under a privacy fence with water running out of it. We were parched so we took a drink and continued to play, we never questioned why someone would have water running out into the alley for no reason other than just to waste water.
We drank from it again and the homeowner hears us out there this time and came out informed us that he was draining his pool because there was a bunch of kids in it for a birthday party the day before and there had been an “accident” in the pool, and we were drinking pool water. Tasted fine. Im still here.
Another +1 For Drums. Drums tend to contain a lot of the dust produced as the shoes wear and when the brakes are serviced the dust can be captured and disposed of properly.
Disc brakes ruin your fancy wheels with acidic brake dust, they litter their dust all over your wheels and the roadway.
I think copper is mostly toxic to aquatic vegetation. I remember painting the bottom of a sailboat we used to own with anti-fouling bottom paint which keeps the bottom of the hull from getting coated with a thick layer of algae. It was mostly pulverized copper in a binder. We had to stir it constantly as we applied it with a paint roller.
This paint is probably illegal in калифорниа now.
B.L.E., what you said about copper is true. In the days of sailing ship, many were even clad below the waterline in copper sheathing to prevent fouling. The Cutty Sark is an excellent example. Marine paints even today (well, the last I knew anyway) contain copper to retard fouling.
the same mountainbike, It didn’t take me long to figure out that big sailboats are more work than fun. We practically gave it away just to get out from underneath the monthly slip fees, which is OK because that boat was practically given to us in the first place.
Today I sail something that stays on a trailer when not on the water. (Laser) No toxic bottom paint needed, and just as much if not more actual fun, plus there’s no need to get a crew together when you are in the mood to go for a sail.
Just can’t help being a little smart alecky but I’m sure the same number of folks care about the stickers as the oscars. Now rick, you may still be here, but are you HERE? I’d have nightmares on that having had a pool myself.