peashooter85:Leaded Gasoline and the Age of the EarthEver wonder why some gas stations label their p

peashooter85:Leaded Gasoline and the Age of the EarthEver wonder why some gas stations label their product as “unleaded”?  Is there a leaded gasoline? In the early days of the automobile industry, vehicles often suffered from a condition known as “knocking”.  This occurs when the fuel in an engine’s cylinder combusts all at once rather than an evenly, orderly, controlled burn.  The popularity of fuel efficient, high compression engines during the early days of the automobile caused the problem to become more and more prevalent.  If left untreated, knocking can completely wreck an engine.In 1921 chemists working for General Motors discovered that adding a liquid composed of alcohol with small amounts of lead (tetra ethyl lead) would totally silence engine knock.  The solution was considered a marvel of the day; it was cheap, its was effective, and it was dangerous.  By then it was common knowledge that lead was a dangerous poison, causing terrible illness such as spasms, hallucinations, seizures, blindness, kidney failure, brain damage, madness, coma, and death. Despite the dangers, the new producer of leaded gasoline, The Ethyl Gasoline Corporation, successfully claimed that the substance did not produce any lead in the exhaust.  Despite warnings from the Surgeon General and other health sources, Ethyl Gasoline was able to convince the public that leaded gasoline was safe.  The Federal Trade Commission concurred. This completely flew in the face of reason, especially since Ethyl Gasoline’s factories boasted extremely high numbers of deaths, hospitalizations, and commitments to psychiatric institutions among employees.  One of the largest facilities was nicknamed “The House of Butterflies” due to the hallucinations common among workers.  Regardless of the risks, by the 1960’s 98% of the nations gasoline was leaded.In the 1950’s a scientist named Clair Patterson was experimenting with a new method of determining the age of rocks, with the ultimate goal of determining the age of the Earth.  His method, now called mass spectography, measured the amounts of lead and uranium isotopes, older rocks having less and newer rocks having more.  The rocks were excavated from the layers of the earth, with the deepest layers containing the oldest rock.  Using this method Patterson was able to conclude that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, a figure which is still accepted by the scientific community today.During his experiments Patterson also discovered something shocking, more shocking than the fact that the Earth was 4.5 billion years old.  Many of his samples contained 200 times more lead than expected.  Patterson immediately suspected that leaded gasoline was the culprit and published the results of his experiments, warning the public of the deleterious effects of lead contamination.  He proposed that ice core samples be taken from Arctic icepacks in Greenland to prove his claims.  The ice samples should not contain any lead contamination within its ancient ice packs.  The method had never been done in Patterson’s time, but today is a common technique used by scientist to study the history of earth’s climate. The results of the experiment showed that ancient ice layers contained negligible amounts of lead, but that ice layers formed after 1923, the year in which leaded gasoline was introduced, contained more than 1,000 times more lead than any other point in history.  He also conducted studies on ancient human remains which showed that modern humans boasted a 700 to 1200 fold increase in lead levels.  It was conclusive, leaded gasoline was causing a dangerous trend of lead contamination.In the years following the study, Patterson worked tirelessly to spread public awareness of the dangers of leaded gasoline.  The Ethyl Gasoline Corporation even had the chutzpah to offer Patterson a high paying position within the corporation if he published more favorable results.  Patterson, of course, refused.  In 1970 the Clean Air Act was passed and leaded gasoline was phased out of production.  By the mid 80’s leaded gasoline was effectively phased out for automobile use. Airborne lead contamination has since been greatly reduced. By 1990, lead levels in Americans bloodstreams had been reduced by 80% -- source link

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