Getting the Lead Out
The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that the evidence linking lead in gasoline to human ailments is so compelling that it has significantly advanced its timetable for phasing out the fuel additive. Beginning July 1 the lead content of “regular” gasoline must be cut more than 50%, and by the beginning of next year the reduction will amount to 90%. By 1988 leaded gasoline may be entirely prohibited. All this, says EPA Administrator Lee Thomas, could raise gasoline refining costs by about 2 cents a gallon. But the public health gains will more than offset any price increase.
Why should leaving something out of gasoline raise its costs? Because lead is the cheapest way to boost the energy value of gasoline, and without it the refining process needed to get suitable octane levels becomes more complicated and so more costly. As it happens, most cars sold in the United States since 1975 have been required to operate on unleaded fuel only, as a clean-air measure. Engines built to run on leaded fuel are thus a steadily disappearing breed. One problem is that a lot of newer cars--the EPA estimates 16%--have had their anti-pollution equipment made ineffective by motorists who cheat at the pump and buy generally cheaper leaded fuel. A ban on leaded gasoline should also eliminate that problem.
The EPA figures that 80% of the lead in air comes from gasoline, and the health effects of this environmental pollution are far-reaching. Children are particularly at risk, with lead exposure linked to unusual incidences of mental retardation, anemia and kidney disorders. Now two recent studies, which the EPA emphasizes cannot yet be considered conclusive, have associated elevated lead levels in the blood with high blood pressure among white males in the 40-59 age group. The cutback on leaded gasoline, according to the EPA, should mean that next year only half as many children--172,000--will suffer lead poisoning. And it could mean that 1.8 million men will be relieved of high blood pressure.
Lead poisoning is a danger almost as old as civilization. Though its health effects are now clearly understood, avoidable lead pollution continues to be tolerated. The EPA move is welcome and, from all medical evidence, long overdue.
