Leaded Gas Was a Known Poison the Day It Was Invented (2016)

(smithsonianmag.com)

44 points | by downbad_ 53 minutes ago

8 comments

  • louky 17 minutes ago
    The major proponent was also known as

    Thomas Midgley Jr.: Accidentally The Most Dangerous Man Who Ever Lived[0]

    Leaded gas, CFCs, and accidentally created a machine that ended his own existence.[1]

    [0]https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.

  • culi 9 minutes ago
    Yes and the toxic effects of asbestos had been known for thousands of years before popcorn ceilings became a fad
  • ChrisArchitect 10 minutes ago
    Some previous discussion:

    2021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28500508

  • ck2 29 minutes ago
    and still sprayed all around the surrounding land at almost every airport in the USA and worldwide from prop aircraft exhaust despite knowing ANY amount is toxic and irreversible for 30+ years

    * https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/leaded-gas-wa...

    • londons_explore 25 minutes ago
      You say that in the past tense... But pretty much every propeller plane worldwide still uses the stuff...
      • mr_toad 10 minutes ago
        Only in piston engines, which are a minority of propeller planes. Most commercial propeller aircraft are turboprops, and they use jet fuel. And diesel engines are slowly taking over from gasoline in piston engines.
  • dbg31415 4 minutes ago
    The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV3dnLzthDA

  • cyanydeez 32 minutes ago
    i'm fairly certain the reason trump was elected is the long tail of leaded gasoline; the timing fits pretty well.
    • Epa095 16 minutes ago
      Why did these same people vote differently earlier? Does the effect of leaded gasoline show up later in life?

      And does not explain all the young men voting for him.

      • digitaltrees 1 minute ago
        They didn’t vote differently. There were a larger number of the greatest generation that were more comfortable with shared sacrifice in service of society and less entitled like the baby boomers are.
  • aa_is_op 52 minutes ago
    The guy that invented spent years bed-ridden because of it... yet he still went to trade shows to show it off
  • phendrenad2 21 minutes ago
    Same with cigarettes and asbestos. Everyone knew smokers had shorter lives, but the facts were suppressed because it was inconvenient. Everyone knew asbestos was dangerous, but they put it in every single house for decades because "fire was worse".

    And don't even get me started on DDT and teflon.

    • hyperhello 9 minutes ago
      Cigarette smoking really got going in the world wars, I understand, especially ww2 when the world had manufacturers serving the effort. The custom is dying with the veterans as everyone knows they have a hall pass for it but the rest of us don’t. So smoking was a shorter life but that hardly matters when you’re deployed in theater.