The persistent 'battle' of a scientist in the journey to eliminate leaded gasoline globally

For the first time since 1923, leaded gasoline was removed from the market when the last country to use leaded gasoline, Algeria, officially phased out the fuel on August 30, 2021. This is a glorious milestone for global health care and the environment, but behind it is a decades-long battle for scientist Clair Patterson - who discovered the reports on the Lead's toxicity to humans is completely distorted.

Leaded gasoline officially "surrendered" on August 30, 2021.

About leaded gasoline

Gasoline is a light liquid containing hydrocarbons, volatile and flammable, distilled from petroleum by direct distillation and cracking, density d15= from 0.70 to 0.75, characteristic odor, temperature boils from 35-200°C. Gasoline is used as a fuel in internal combustion engines, carburetor or gasoline engines, and many other applications. Leaded gasoline can simply be understood in gasoline with a small amount of lead tetraethyl lead (C2H5)4Pb added, which increases the compression resistance of the fuel, leading to a saving of about 30% of the amount of gasoline used. But when burned in the engine, the lead oxide produced will stick to the exhaust pipes and cylinder walls. In fact, people also mix into gasoline 1,2 - dibromethane CH2Br - CH2Br so that the lead oxide turns into a volatile PbBr2 salt out of the cylinder,

In the early 1920s, lead was added to gasoline to improve engine performance, making automobile engines run smoother and quieter. However, four years later the warning was issued, when five workers were declared dead and dozens more hospitalized with convulsions at a refinery run by the US oil giant Standard Oil. Despite this, lead continues to be added to gasoline globally. Until the 1970s, developed countries began to phase out this fuel gradually. Three decades later, in the early 2000s, the world still had 86 countries using leaded gasoline.

According to the statement of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on August 30, 2021, the last country to use leaded gasoline, Algeria, has officially phased out this fuel. For the first time since 1923, leaded gasoline was removed from the market. 'This is a brilliant milestone for global health care and the environment. It is also the fruit of a decades-long campaigning journey," Inger Andersen, UNEP Executive Director, told reporters.

Algeria was the last country to use leaded gasoline.

Clair Patterson - pioneer of 'conservation' of unleaded gasoline

Cameron Patterson, born Clair Cameron Patterson (6/1922 - 12/1995), was an American doctor of geochemistry, working at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In the 1940s, Willard Libby of the University of Chicago (who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1960) proposed a radiocarbon dating method, which would allow scientists to calculate the exact age of bones and other organic remains. The engine assigned the topic to Clair Patterson (who was a graduate student at the time) and promised that this method could calculate the age of the earth. After seven years of persistent searching for samples, in the spring of 1953, he discovered and measured microscopic amounts of lead and uranium in a crystal. Also found out that the age of the earth is 4550±70 million years, this number is still recognized. More importantly, Patterson found that lead's toxicity to humans was completely distorted.

From there, removing lead from gasoline became the goal of his life's research, while declaring war on the hugely profitable lead industry. Patterson's work on this topic has led to a whole re-evaluation of the evolution of industrial lead concentrations in the atmosphere and the human body.

Patterson's next campaign was to ban tetraethyllead in gasoline and lead solder in food cans. Because of his interests, many energy corporations at that time forced him, even the executives of Caltech, where Patterson worked, to suffer the same fate. As a result, in 1971, Patterson was removed from the National Research Council, where he was in charge of the poisoning investigation and was a leading expert. However, with Patterson's great perseverance and courage, in 1970 the US 'Clean Air' Act was passed and in 1986 a ban on the sale of leaded gasoline was enacted in the US. Immediately, the amount of lead in the blood of Americans dropped by 80% and it was only in 2001 that it was officially acknowledged.

Clair Patterson died in 1995 and was never honored. Two famous geological books written on determining the age of the earth also misspelled his name, even as early as 2001, an article in the journal Nature "mistakenly" recorded Patterson as a woman.

Removing lead from gasoline has been the goal of Clair Patterson's life (Source: Calisphere).

Controversy surrounding the role of Clair Patterson

Clair Patterson is the 'mother' of unleaded gasoline

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), if the "father" of leaded gasoline is Thomas Midgley Jr., the "mother" of unleaded gasoline is Clair Patterson. Until 1996, leaded gasoline was considered legal in the United States, as it powered cars for much of the 20th century before the health hazards of lead were discovered by science. After the negative impact of lead on human health and the environment was discovered, unleaded gasoline was replaced. This historic energy hit would never have happened without the controversial scientific work of Clair Patterson and possibly leaded gasoline would last forever.

According to Mental Floss, the advantages of leaded gasoline are well known, but the harm is not always and everyone is clear. It was considered a "god-for" gift in the 1920s, when people started adding lead to gasoline. It makes car engines run smoother and quieter, and it's inexpensive, so it's loved by American customers. But according to the Mayo Clinic, the effects of lead poisoning are so terrible that even a small amount is enough to cause lasting damage. The tetraethyl lead found in gasoline can cause hallucinations and intense tremors, and can quickly kill a person just touching the skin. Lead poisoning in children can cause lifelong problems, such as developmental delays, seizures, and memory and learning problems.

Clair Patterson and Thomas Midgley Jr.- unleaded gasoline advocate and lead gasoline advocate.

Detecting toxic lead in gasoline from research… meteorite

Although science warns that lead can adversely affect the environment and every living thing on the planet, for decades of poisoning, lead has remained indifferent to the public. An intelligent student with an interest in science, Patterson was recruited to work in a military laboratory after graduating from college. He began designing a mass spectrometer to separate isotopes to produce enriched uranium. But Patterson's work helped build the Manhattan project's Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs in the 1940s, prompting him to leave the science behind.

According to CalTech, around 1953, Patterson managed a project to measure the isotope composition of lead found in a meteorite. His important work proved that planet Earth is more than 4.5 billion years old. This was a ground-breaking discovery, still recognized to this day. After studying lead levels for Earth dating work, Patterson continued to study lead throughout the 1960s, and discovered four common types of lead, and found trace lead in everything. .

After traveling to California to study, Clair Patterson discovered lead floating on the ocean's surface and was shocked to find that the percentage of lead on the top of the mountain was 100 times higher than in sea water. According to Patterson, atmospheric lead levels in California are at least 1,000 times higher than the legal limit. He was so worried about these findings that he spent the rest of his life researching and educating about the dangers of lead and trying to get it out of as many products as possible. In 1965, Clair Patterson published a study called "Contaminated and Natural Lead Environments of Man", unfortunately, instead of celebrating, his article was again. evoke anger in the interest group.

Toxic discovery of lead in gasoline from research… meteorites.

Who is the strongest anti-Clair Patterson?

According to Mental Floss, of Patterson's critics, Robert Kehoe is one of the most formidable. The reason, Kehoe's lab has a monopoly on research on tetraethyl lead, and yet, Kehoe is also backed by banks and big oil companies like DuPont and General Motors. Some of Patterson's research was funded by oil companies, but Patterson was more interested in science and facts. That's why Patterson took the risk to publish her work, and the result was not only an immediate cut in research funding, but also a cut in cooperation like the Public Health Department (PHS) right after her research. he was published.

Clair Patterson - a genuine scientist who is always remembered by the public for his contribution to discovering the dangers of leaded gasoline.

According to NAS Online, in 1971, the US National Research Council wrote a report to the Environmental Protection Agency on the harmful effects of lead pollution in the air, but unfortunately Patterson's research was ignored. But that didn't stop him from campaigning for lead elimination, raising public awareness of high-lead foods, like tuna, in the late 1970s. According to OpenMind BBVA, scientists are not the only people 'hot-faced' by Clair Patterson's findings, which a missionary who once knocked on Patterson's door warned he would go to hell for his discoveries.

Despite being a man of great merit, devoting his life to science, towards the end of his life, Patterson remained a controversial and forgotten figure. In the 1980s, disillusioned with the harm humans do to the environment, he began writing a book advocating for population control. Clair Patterson died in 1995, the same year he was awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. It is the last award for a genuine scientist who is remembered forever by the public.

For example, Kehoe recommends that an employee's blood level should be no more than 80 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. That means if an employee has 65 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood, they are considered unharmed. Opposing, Patterson said, the truth has been distorted and today we know that just 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood is too high compared to the safe threshold, but in the early 20th century people believed that is safe, may be unknown or intentionally unknown.

According to NAS Online, although Patterson helped bring about change, due to the bureaucracy and inertia of the system it was slow to materialize. Lead began to be phased out of the gasoline supply in 1973, but was not completely eliminated 14 years later. Although gasoline is a major pollutant, public awareness of lead has increased over time, so it is also removed from old water pipes and household paint because of the immediate risk of lead poisoning. even in small doses. Meanwhile, Robert Kehoe spent years masking high levels of lead among oil company employees by ignoring or misrepresenting the harmful effects of lead.