Several states have banned the sale of new lead WW. (You can guess which states). Several automotive manufacturers have stopped using lead WW on new cars; therefore, they do not buy lead WW. These include some U.S., Asian and European manufacturers. To simplify their logistics, several national tire chains have stopped using lead WW because they don't want to stock different types of WW for individual states.
Lead is generally perceived as a toxic substance. While lead can be dangerous, it is not always dangerous. Years of using tetraethyl lead in gasoline and lead in paint didn’t help those broadly held negative opinions. Unfortunately, a lot of people like to be spoon fed their information and they don’t want to educate themselves about the world around them. So, when somebody suggests we ban lead, they jump on that bandwagon and blindly support that cause-
because they are soooooo much smarter that everyone else……..
I suspect as more and more states enact lead WW bans, suppliers will simply drop the lead WW opinion because it is just too difficult to maintain multiple supply chains for various states.
The days of lead WW as a source of bullet casting lead are not completely over but I think they are numbered.
The Good news is the demand for flooded lead-acid batteries is up due to the use in solar and wind systems. While bullet casters cannot readily use lead from batteries, there is at least still a high industrial demand for lead. Which means the tree huggers cannot completely eliminate lead from our society.