Latest paper in this series:

William Kovarik, Ethyl-leaded Gasoline: How a Classic Occupational Disease Became an  International Public Health Disaster,  INT J OCCUP ENVIRON HEALTH 2005;11:384–397


One of 17 Bayway N.J. refinery workers who were victims of severe tetraethyl lead poisoning. They died "violently insane" in October of 1924
As seen by the New York Journal-American
 

"Ethyl" brand leaded gasoline versus ethyl alcohol -- which was the best anti-knock additive for gasoline? Three grams of tetra ethyl lead and 15 percent ethyl alcohol both improved a fuel's power. One was cheap, but it was a well known poison. The other was a clean, renewable fuel that helped farmers and kept nations independent of political oil pressures. Dozens of countries were already using ethyl alcohol fuels.

Just after World War I, American engineers made their choice. Putting profit above public health was nothing new for American industry, but it had never been done on such a massive scale and with such deadly results...

Index for this page:


In 1925, Ethyl officials told the Public Health Service and the news media that there were no alternatives to leaded gasoline. Yet long before this picture was taken in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1933, alcohol gasoline blends were widely marketed in the Midwest and in Europe, and Ethyl's own researchers believed alcohol was "unquestionably the fuel of the future."

 

Historical points of reference


This is the cover of
The Nation magazine
March 20, 2000.

  The Nation Magazine article

Other Magazine articles



This chart shows the direct relationship between the dramatic drop in average American blood lead levels and the decrease in leaded gasoline use (red line) between 1976 and 1980.

 

 

   Links to public health and other scholarship

 



Leaded gasoline was everywhere. It was used in 90 percent of all gasoline in the US between 1930 and 1976. It was so common that even Disney World -- where this image was taken -- put these apparently harmless little signs up in their antique gas station.








   Ten Myths about Leaded Gasoline

    Myth 1. Now that leaded gasoline is banned in the U.S., there is no reason to revist the 75-year-old controversy. There is a lot to learn from this episode of our history. It was the "Chernobyl" of the 1920s and one of the great environmental disasters of the 20th century. Only in recent years have European nations banned leaded gasoline. It is still marketed in Latin America, Asia and Africa, although a global lead-phase-out is finding more success than not.

    Myth 2. Only in the 1970s did scientists become aware of the dangers of leaded gasoline. Fact: GM's Charles Kettering and Thomas Midgley were well aware of the dangers and were repeatedly warned by scientists from Harvard, MIT, Yale and Pottsdam about this "creeping and malicious poison" long before it was put on the market in 1923.

    Myth 3. The 1921 discoverty of tetraethyl lead was the product of a systematic and scientific search through all the possible octane boosting alternatives. Fact: This is a widely accepted view but, in light of recently available historical evidence, wildly off the mark. In fact, leaded gasoline was only one result of what was originally a frantic and haphazard search, and later a highly selective search, for a patentable anti-knock additive. It was meant to be a bridge to higher octane fuels of the future, especially alcohol (ethanol) from cellulose. Midgley wrote Kettering at one point in 1922 (after TEL was invented): "Unquestionably alcohol is the fuel of the future and is [already] playing its part in tropical countries... "

    Myth 4. The news media attacked the oil and automotive industries once the gruesome deaths of refinery workers became public in October of 1924. The press labelled it "loony gas" and sensationalism swept away rational considerations. Fact: The workers themselves named the fuel additive loony gas because they knew it was, literally, driving them crazy. The media "attack" was nothing more than reporting on a commercial enterprise with grave public health implications. GM, Standard Oil (Exxon) and the Ethyl Corp. employed a physician who at one point insisted to the press that "nothing be said about this in the public interest." When that request was shrugged off by the media, any subsequent reporting would be seen as an attack.

Henry Ford thought ethyl alcohol auto fuel would help American farmers find new markets and maintain their way of life.
  

    Myth 5. GM's Kettering and his assistant Thomas Midgley were not fully aware of the risks of killing workers using the manufacturing process they developed. Fact: Midgley had lead poisoning himself in 1922. In early 1923, two workers died at GM's Dayton, Ohio facility. DuPont took up the manufacturing process in 1923 and lost five workers in the early months of operation. Even so, the construction of the Standard Bayway, N.J. plant in 1924 shocked DuPont engineers who protested that the plant was being built without regard for worker safety. Kettering, however, issued "war orders" to get the plants at full capacity in the shortest possible time

    Myth 6. The 17 direct deaths and dozens more indirect deaths from leaded gasoline production and distribution in the 1920s were mainly attributable to a failure of management and/or staff to follow instructions. Fact: This was the public relations line pursued by the company in subsequent years, and most historians have repeated it. Yet according to DuPont engineers who testified in a 1950s federal case, it was the manifestly unsafe plant design, where workers came into direct contact with concentrated fumes from the reactor vessels, that was responsible for the initial disasters

    Myth 7. Kettering and Midgley discarded other alternatives after leaded gasoline was introduced because it was technically and economically the best choice for a detonation surpressing fuel additive. Fact: Leaded gasoline was not the most obvious alternative. There were still many technical problems with leaded gasoline, and engines had to be redesigned to use it. The reason Kettering was in such a hurry (see Myth #5) was that Arco, Sunoco and other major companies were marketing high octane gasoline from thermal (and later, catalytic) cracking processes without resorting to lead additives.

     


Charles Kettering was a brilliant automotive inventor. He was a charming person, a scholar, and he was said to be great fun to work with. But why did he go along with the Standard Oil plan to poison America for the sake of profits?
 

    Myth 8. The Surgeon General's committee on leaded gasoline gave it a "clean bill of health" in its 1926 report. Fact: Many of the members of the committee felt that the study was "half baked" and that the public health question had not been answered. They strongly recommended continued independent testing (which did not occur until the 1960s).

    Myth 9. Historians today have all the documentation they need to understand the environmental conflict over leaded gasoline in the 1920s. Fact: Standard, Ethyl and GM archives may still contain thousands of unreleased pages of original documentation concerning the development of leaded gasoline. Most historical accounts until recently have been based purely on * tertiary * historical sources that were highly refined by GM public relations experts.

    Myth 10. Economic and technologically sound alternatives to leaded gasoline were not known at the time and are not available today. Fact: Along with thermal and catalytic cracking and alcohol additives, a considerable number of alternatives to TEL were widely known and, in fact, many were patented by GM in the 1920s and 30s. An FBI anti-trust report about the Ethyl Corp. lists over 40 GM fuel patents in the period.