8,500 YEARS OF LEAD
9 YEARS OF LEADED GASOLINE

Feature story: Getting the Lead Out

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.

Feature story: Getting the Lead Out