3min chapter

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford cover image

The Inventor Who Almost Ended the World

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

CHAPTER

Leaded Gasoline

I am not one of those who believe that the use of this leaded gasoline can ever be made safe. No lead industry has ever even under the strictest control lost all its dangers. Where there is lead, some case of lead poisoning sooner or later develops. There had already been ample evidence of the risk. A to plant making Tetra-E-Thyle Lead in New Jersey, five of the 49 workers had died. Most of the rest had been taken to hospital in straight jackets, hallucinating, screaming and convulsing. Midgley insisted that it was too little lead in exhaust fumes to cause any problems for human health. He didn't intend to poison people, but

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