Unleaded How Changing Our Gasoline Changed Everything [#298695]

English | 2021 | ISBN: 197882100X | 181 pages | True PDF | 8.29 MB
When leaded gasoline was first developedin the 1920s, medical experts were quick to warn of the public health catastrophes it would cause. Yet government regulators did not heed their advice,and for more than half a century, nearly all cars used leaded gasoline, which contributed to a nationwide epidemic of lead poisoning. Bythe1970s, 99.8% of American children had significantly elevated levels of lead in their blood.
Unleadedtells the story of how crusading scientists and activists convinced the U.S. government to ban lead additives in gasoline. It also reveals how, for nearly fifty years, scientific experts paid by the oil and mining industries abused their authority to convince the public that leaded gasoline was perfectly harmless.