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.