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Thomas Midgley Jr. (May 18, 1889 – November 2, 1944) was an American mechanical and chemical engineer.He played a major role in developing leaded gasoline (tetraethyl lead) and some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), better known in the United States by the brand name Freon; both products were later banned from common use due to their harmful impact on human health and the environment.
The major source of lead exposure during the 20th century was leaded gasoline. Proponents of the lead–crime hypothesis argue that the removal of lead additives from motor fuel, and the consequent decline in children's lead exposure, explains the fall in crime rates in the United States beginning in the 1990s. [4]
Leaded gasoline was withdrawn entirely from the European Union market on 1 January 2000, although it had been banned earlier in most member states. Other countries also phased out TEL. [121] India banned leaded petrol in March 2000. [70] By 2011, the United Nations announced that it had been successful in phasing out leaded gasoline worldwide.
A lead compound called tetraethyl lead was marketed under the brand name Ethyl and became a commercial success. Algeria was the last nation to halt the use of leaded gas in 2021.
Piston-engine aircraft remain the single largest source of highly toxic airborne lead. Leaded gas was phased out 25 years ago. Why are these planes still using toxic fuel?
Of that group, the greatest lead-linked mental illness burden was for Generation Xers born between 1966 and 1970, coinciding with peak use of leaded gasoline in the mid-1960s and mid-1970s.
The history of gasoline started around the invention of internal combustion engines suitable for use in transportation applications. The so-called Otto engines were developed in Germany during the last quarter of the 19th century. The fuel for these early engines was a relatively volatile hydrocarbon obtained from coal gas.
In some parts of South America, Asia, and the Middle East, leaded gasoline is still in use. Leaded gasoline was phased out in sub-Saharan Africa, starting 1 January 2006. A growing number of countries have drawn up plans to ban leaded gasoline in the near future. Some experts speculate that leaded petrol was behind a global crime wave in the ...