Immediately, the engine began running more quietly and putting out more power.
The new fuel was tetraethyl lead.
They named it Ethyl gas.
It has been 100 years since that pivotal day in the development of leaded gasoline.
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General Motors and Standard Oil waved the warnings aside until disaster struck in October 1924.
At first they became disoriented, then burst into insane fury and collapsed into hysterical laughter.
Many had to be wrestled into straitjackets.Six died, and the rest were hospitalized.
The news media began to criticize Standard Oil and raise concerns over Ethyl gas with articles and cartoons.
Industry officials were outraged over the coverage.
Leaded gas was marketed as Ethyl, a joint brand of Standard Oil and General Motors.
The issue, according to GM and Standard, involved refinery safety, not public health.
Public health scientistschallenged the need for leaded gasoline.
And she was right.
There were plenty of well-known alternatives at the time, and some were even patented by GM.
As leaded gasoline fell out of use, lead levels in peoples blood fell as well.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the public health case against leaded gasoline reemerged.
Leaded gasoline manufacturers objected, but the objections wereoverruled by an appeals court.
Both Patterson and Needleman faced strong partisan attacks from the lead industry, whichclaimed that their research was fraudulent.
Europe was next in the 2000s, followed by developing nations after that.
In August 2021, the last country in the world to sell leaded gas, Algeria,banned it.
It takes individual public health leaders and strong media coverage of health and environmental issues to counter these risks.
