8,500 YEARS OF
LEAD
9 YEARS OF
LEADED
GASOLINE
BC:
6500 BC. Lead discovered in Turkey.
3000 BC. First significant production of
lead.
500 BC-300 AD. Roman lead smelting
produces dangerous emissions.
100 BC. Greek physicians give clinical
description of lead poisoning.
1800s:
1854. Tetraethyl lead (TEL) discovered by
German chemist.
1887. US medical authorities diagnose
childhood lead poisoning.
1900s:
1904. Child lead poisoning linked to
lead-based paints.
1909. France, Belgium and Austria ban
white-lead interior paint.
1910s:
1914. Pediatric lead-paint poisoning death
from eating crib paint is described.
1916. GM and United Motors buy Charles
Kettering's DELCO, which experiments
with preventing engine knock.
1918. Scientific American reports
alcohol-gasoline blend can be used as motor
fuel.
1918. Thomas Midgley patents
benzene/gasoline blend as antiknock.
1919. Du Pont interests buy additional
shares of GM.
1919. London General Omnibus Co.
experiments prove ethanol is antiknock.
1919. Kettering gives Midgley two weeks
to find antiknock.
1920s:
1920. US Naval Committee approves
alcohol-gasoline blend.
1920. Midgley patents alcohol and cracked
(olefin) gasoline blend.
1920. Du Pont now owns more than 35
percent of GM.
1921. National Lead Company admits lead
is a poison.
1921. Midgley demonstrates car powered
by 30 percent alcohol-gasoline blend.
1921. Midgley discovers that tetraethyl lead
(TEL) curbs engine knock.
1922. League of Nations bans white-lead
interior paint; US declines to adopt.
1922. GM contracts Du Pont to supply
TEL.
1922. Public Health Service (PHS) warns of
dangers of lead production, leaded fuel.
1922. Scientists express concern to Midgley
over TEL in gas.
1923. Midgley repairs to Miami to recover
from lead poisoning.
1923. Leaded gasoline goes on sale in
selected markets.
1923. GM Chemical Corporation
established to produce TEL.
1923. First Du Pont TEL plant opens at
Deepwater, NJ.
1923. First TEL-poisoning deaths occur at
Deepwater plant.
1923. GM contracts toothless Bureau of
Mines to test TEL.
1924. Two GM employees die of lead
poisoning at TEL plant. Dr. Robert Kehoe
hired to study hazards at plant. Begins
career as lead's lead apologist.
1924. GM forms medical committee to
examine lead threat.
1924. Standard Oil begins production of
TEL at Bayway plant.
1924. GM and Standard Oil of NJ form
Ethyl Gasoline Corp.
1924. GM medical committee delivers
negative and highly cautionary report on
TEL. Irénée du Pont "not disturbed."
1924. Five workers die of lead poisoning at
Bayway plant.
1924. NY Board of Health bans sales of
TEL-enhanced gasoline.
1924. Bureau of Mines study gives TEL
clean bill of health.
1924. Standard Oil suspends sale of leaded
gasoline in NJ.
1924. Officials of GM, Standard, Du Pont
request Surgeon General hold public
hearings.
1925. Forgetting ethanol, Midgley proclaims
TEL is only viable antiknock.
1925. Yale's Yandell Henderson warns of
danger from breathing lead dust in auto
emissions.
1925. Du Pont opens second TEL plant.
1925. Ethyl withdraws its gasoline from
market until Surgeon General's conference.
1925. SG's conference calls for expert
committee to study TEL.
1926. Committee calls for regulating sales of
Ethyl and for further study by PHS, funded
by Congress (studies never funded).
1926. Signs in gas stations: "Ethyl is back."
1926. Du Pont reopens Deepwater TEL
plant.
1926. GM President Sloan expresses
concern about valve corrosion with Ethyl.
1927. GM quells rebellion of dealers against
use of lead fuel.
1928. Lead Industries Association formed
to combat "undesirable publicity."
1928. Surgeon General tells NYC there are
"no good grounds" to ban TEL.
1930s:
1930. Ethyl Export is founded in England to
sell leaded gas overseas.
1932. British Medical Journal cites "slow,
subtle insidious saturation of the system by
infinitesimal doses of lead extending over
long period of time."
1933. USDA, naval researchers find Ethyl
and 20 percent ethanol blend equal in
performance.
1934. Ethyl and I.G. Farben form Ethyl
GmbH to make leaded airplane fuel.
1936. 90 percent of gasoline sold in US
contains Ethyl.
1938. Ethyl Export becomes Associated
Ethyl Company.
1940s:
1943. Report concludes eating lead paint
chips causes physical and neurological
disorders, behavior, learning and intelligence
problems in children.
1948. US files antitrust suit against Du Pont
to break up "largest single concentration of
power in the United States." Main target is
Du Pont's $560 million investment in GM.
1950s:
1950. Dr. Arie Haagen-Smit identifies
causes of smog in LA as interaction of
hydrocarbons (cars largest source) and
oxides of nitrogen.
1952. Justice Dept antitrust suit against Du
Pont focuses on anticompetitve association
between it, GM, Standard Oil and Ethyl.
1954. Octel begins TEL production in
England.
Mid-1950s. Auto makers pact stifles
development of emissions-control devices.
1959. PHS approves Ethyl request to
increase lead in gasoline. PHS regrets that
SG committee's 1926 call for studies was
not followed up.
1960s:
1961. Ethyl and Associated Octel compete
for overseas trade.
1962. Ethyl sold to Albemarle Paper Co. in
$200 million leveraged buyout partly
financed by sellers, GM and Standard Oil.
1965. Clair Patterson's study "Contaminated
and Natural Lead Environments of Man"
offers first hard proof that high lead levels in
industrial nations are man-made and
endemic.
1966. Senate Public Works Committee
holds first hearings on air pollution.
1969. Auto makers settle suit by Justice
Department for conspiracy to delay the
development of pollution-control devices.
1970s:
1970. Passage of Clean Air Act.
1970. To avert threatened legislation to
restrict use of internal-combustion engine,
GM agrees to add catalytic converters to
meet Clean Air law. Active element of
converters--platinum--is contaminated by
leaded gas, presaging its demise.
1971. Lead-Based Paint Poisoning
Prevention Act passed.
1972. EPA gives notice of proposed
phaseout of lead in gasoline. In first use of
Freedom of Information Act, Ethyl sues
EPA.
1973. EPA promulgates lead phaseout in
gasoline but delays setting standards. When
standards are set, EPA sued by Ethyl.
1976. EPA standards upheld by US Court
of Appeals, and Supreme Court refuses to
hear appeal.
1978. Energy Tax Act creates ethanol tax
incentive, expanding use of ethanol in US.
1980s:
1980. National Academy of Sciences calls
leaded gasoline greatest source of
atmospheric lead pollution.
1980. National Security Act of 1980
mandates all gasoline be blended with a
minimum of 10 percent grain
alcohol--"gasohol." Subsequently scuttled by
Reagan Administration.
1980. Gasohol Competition Act passed by
Congress to stop oil companies'
discrimination against sales of gasohol at
their pumps.
1980. Ethyl reports it has expanded its
overseas business tenfold between 1964
and 1981; profits help fund diversification.
1981. Vice President George Bush's Task
Force on Regulatory Relief proposes to
relax or eliminate US leaded gas phaseout.
1982. Reagan Administration reverses
opposition to lead phaseout.
1983. Between 1976 and 1980, EPA
reports, amount of lead consumed in
gasoline dropped 50 percent. Blood-lead
levels dropped 37 percent. Benefits of
phaseout exceed costs by $700 million.
1986. Primary phaseout of leaded gas in US
completed.
1990s:
1992. Rio environmental summit calls for
worldwide lead phaseout.
1994. Study shows that US blood-lead
levels declined by 78 percent from 1978 to
1991.
1994. American Academy of Pediatrics
study shows direct relationship between lead
exposure and IQ deficits in children.
1996. World Bank calls for world phaseout
of leaded gasoline.
2000s:
2000. European Union bans leaded
gasoline.