Opinion
Regulating lead-acid batteries
A photo illustration of a lead-acid battery. (Image: Marynchenko Oleksandr, via Shutterstock)The government nearly always takes the straightforward approach to problematic chemical substances by simply restricting or banning their use. This approach fails to control the replacement(s), so we all too often end up with regrettable substitutions – the use of other chemical substances that perform no better than the substances they replaced in terms of environmental and human health toxicity.