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Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)

#21

Post by vlian2088 »

digitaltrees wrote: post #18
Epa095 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did these same people vote differently earlier? Does the effect of leaded gasoline show up later in life? And does not explain all the young men voting for him.

They didn’t vote differently. There were a larger number of the greatest generation that were more comfortable with shared sacrifice in service of society and less entitled like the baby boomers are.

now let's dig up some old timey polls and see how the greatest generation felt about the issues you hold dear :)

Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)

#24

Post by mh- »

mr_toad wrote: post #14
londons_explore wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that in the past tense... But pretty much every propeller plane worldwide still uses the stuff...

Only in piston engines, which are a minority of propeller planes. Most commercial propeller aircraft are turboprops, and they use jet fuel. And diesel engines are slowly taking over from gasoline in piston engines.

Correct. For others reading this though: virtually all piston-engine GA aircraft in the US today are still burning 100LL (leaded), and there are nearly 200,000 of them actively flying.

There is a timeline to transition to UL, but very low collective confidence it'll happen by the 2030 goal.

edit: to the commenter that fired off the reactionary reply and deleted it before I could help you. No, not because "[rich people] won't do the right thing." It's because lead is an anti-knock additive for piston engines, and a safe replacement has to go through unimaginable amounts of testing. Once it's certified, one must still figure out scaling production, distribution, etc. Aviation is a very slow moving industry and regulatory environment, which I'm personally thankful for.

PDF (77pgs): https://download.aopa.org/advocacy/2026/2026-01_Draft-Unlead...

Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)

#25

Post by dnemmers »

ck2 wrote: post #6

and still sprayed all around the surrounding land at almost every airport in the USA and worldwide from prop aircraft exhaust despite knowing ANY amount is toxic and irreversible for 30+ years * https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/leaded-gas-wa...

Very true that only recently, a lead-free substitute was available.

https://g100ul.com/

Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)

#27

Post by [deleted] »

mh- wrote: post #24
mr_toad wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only in piston engines, which are a minority of propeller planes. Most commercial propeller aircraft are turboprops, and they use jet fuel. And diesel engines are slowly taking over from gasoline in piston engines.

Correct. For others reading this though: virtually all piston-engine GA aircraft in the US today are still burning 100LL (leaded), and there are nearly 200,000 of them actively flying. There is a timeline to transition to UL, but very low collective confidence it'll happen by the 2030 goal. edit: to the commenter that fired off the reactionary reply and deleted it before I could help you. No, not because "[rich peopl…

[deleted]

Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)

#28

Post by leoc »

Lucas Reilly's Mental Floss article on Clair Patterson https://www.mentalfloss.com/science/environment/clair-patter... is a much better piece. I'll also recycle https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=heymijo 's old comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28502232 on this article from its 2021 HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28500508 (again, what follows is his or her work not mine!):

> Two beliefs became entrenched:

1. that lead is natural to the human body, and

2. that a poisoning threshold for lead existed

Robert Kehoe, working for GM, was the chief advocate for leaded gasoline, and really the only person/lab doing research on lead until Clair Patterson stumbled into it while measuring the age of the earth. [0,1]

A modern equivalent might be if Facebook was the only organization researching social media's impact on society, while being able to set the paradigm/assumptions about said safety for half a century.

So even when Patterson's research was published in 1965, it took time to change the paradigm, and more time to phase out lead's use.

Should anyone want to read a narrative about the intertwined lives of Midgley, Patterson, Kehoe and lead, then this Mental Floss article is a good read. [2]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Kehoe

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Patterson#Campaign_again...

[2] https://www.mentalfloss.com/science/environment/clair-patter...

Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)

#29

Post by mmooss »

louky wrote: post #11

The major proponent was also known as Thomas Midgley Jr.: Accidentally The Most Dangerous Man Who Ever Lived[0] Leaded gas, CFCs, and accidentally created a machine that ended his own existence.[1] [0] https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr .

> Accidentally

Based on the OP, it wasn't at all accidental. They knew it was dangerous and chose it because they could make more money than with safer alternatives such as ethanol.

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