Back
in the early 1920s, the U.S. automobile industry had a problem. The public
wanted cars that would go faster, but the industry was stuck with
internal-combustion engines that had a maddening tendency to "knock," rather
than speed up, whenever a driver pressed the accelerator to the floor.
Then,
in 1922, came a breakthrough. A General Motors research team, headed by Thomas
Midgley (soon to be known as the "Father of Ethyl Gas"), perfected a gasoline
additive that seemed to possess magical qualities. It eliminated knock,
increased engine compression, and delivered the higher speeds that everyone
wanted.
There
was only one hitch, and that was the evidence suggesting that the
additive-tetraethyl lead-was dangerous. So when GM and its big chemical
partner Du Pont announced in 1924 that they were launching a venture called
the Ethyl Corporation to manufacture and market tetraethyl lead (TEL), a major
outcry from scientists, public-health specialists, and labor leaders ensued.
That same year, a terrible disaster among workers at an experimental TEL plant
operated by Standard Oil of New Jersey left at least five dead and thirty-five
others suffering from tremors, palsies, and hallucinations-the neurological
symptoms of lead poisoning. The press soon dubbed the substance "loony gas."
The
question was, What would this stuff do to the public at large? Those
scientists not already in the employ of the automobile or petrochemical
industries expressed horror at the prospect of hundreds of thousands of pounds
of lead getting released directly into the air of American cities. But the
officials at Ethyl felt differently and argued that the levels of lead in the
air would be too low to affect anyone. One company representative told a
special conference convened by the U.S. surgeon general that TEL was an
"apparent gift of God." At a news conference, Midgley dramatically illustrated
how safe TEL would be for workers to handle, when he instructed an attendant
to bring him some pure tetraethyl lead, in which he proceeded to wash his
hands. "I'm not taking any chance whatever," he announced to reporters who
were present. "Nor would I take any chance doing that every day." What Midgley
did not care to mention was that, only the year before, he had to take a
prolonged leave from work in order to recover from lead poisoning.
After
all sides had been heard from, including those who warned that leaded gas
would severely endanger the public, the government chose to side with Ethyl.
Seven
decades later, lead contamination has spread to virtually every corner of the
planet, with vehicle emissions blamed for an estimated 80 percent of it. There
is no longer much debate over lead's deleterious nature. Even at very low
levels, it is known to cause irreversible brain damage, developmental
problems, and behavioral abnormalities in children. But since TEL had been
eliminated from most U.S. gasoline over the past seventeen years, its story
would mainly be of historical interests, were it not for the two little-known
facts.
First,
the Ethyl Corporation quietly continues to manufacture up to sixty million
pounds of TEL a year at a plant in Canada, and, along with two other
operations, sells the toxic additive throughout the Third World. Lead levels
in many places, including Mexico City and Jakarta, have reached alarming
levels, threatening an entire generation of people with serious
central-nervous-system damage. (See box below.)
EXPORTING POISON
They've
done it with pesticides, drugs, IUDs, Tris-treated baby pajamas, and
practically everything else banned by the U.S. government for health,
safety, or environmental reasons, so it shouldn't be surprising that
U.S. companies are exporting tetraethyl lead gasoline additive as well.
From
its plant near Sarnia, Ontario, just across Lake Huron from Michigan,
the U.S.-based Ethyl Corporation continues to manufacture up to sixty
million tons of TEL for export to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin
America-seventeen years after the United States and Canadian governments
began phasing it out of gasoline at home.
"Today,
we have one gasoline for the rich countries, and another, deadlier
gasoline for less-industrialized countries," says Mario Epelman, a
physician with the environmental organization Greenpeace.
Besides
Ethyl's operation, U.S.-owned DuPont has a joint venture with Mexico's
national oil company, Pemex, which produces TEL for the Latin American
market. A U.K.- based company, Octel, also makes and exports TEL. While
most industrialized countries have banned leaded gasoline, in the Third
World it is still widely used.
According
to research published by Greenpeace, there is evidence that the use of
leaded gas is causing serious consequences in some of the world's
poorest areas:
*
An
analysis of roadside dust in Nigeria found a content of up to 6,000
parts per million of lead; in the United States, 600 ppm in paint is
considered hazardous to children.
*
A
long-term study by Harvard neurobiologist Stephen Rothenberg, at Mexico
City's National Institute of Perinatal Development, identified
sufficiently high levels of lead in umbilical cords to cause
neurological damage in local babies.
*
Also
in Mexico City, children living near busy streets have higher lead
levels in their blood and are more likely to suffer from
neuropsychological impairments.
*
In
Alexandria, Egypt, where gasoline contains very high TEL levels and lead
air pollution is often double the European Community's (EC) recommended
limit, traffic cops have reportedly been suffering from
central-nervous-system dysfunctions.
*
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, lead levels in air have been measured at 3.9
grams per cubic meter during the day and 1.7 at night; the EC's
recommended limit is 1 gram per cubic meter over a twenty-four-hour
period.
With
the ever-increasing use of cars in Third World countries and the high
proportion of children among these populations, the dangers from the use
of leaded gas are obvious. "We can reasonably expect childhood lead
poisoning to reach truly epidemic proportions in many Third World
cities," says David Schwartzman, a professor of geology at Howard
University.
But
the news is not entirely bleak. Greenpeace and others are pressuring the
Canadian government to stop Ethyl's exports and are trying to convince
Third World governments to reduce the lead content of their gasoline.
Mexico, one of the worst-polluted countries, has been decreasing the
amount of lead in its gas since 1980. There are hopes that other
countries may soon follow suit.
|
Second,
just as lead levels in the environment and in children are finally dropping in
the United States, Ethyl Corporation is carefully preparing to get approval
from the government for a new gasoline additive-in a campaign eerily
reminiscent of Ethyl's lead-related strategy seventy years ago.
The
new substance is MMT, or methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, another
compound that has as its key ingredient a heavy metal-this time, manganese.
Again, there are alarming reports of brain diseases among those who mine or
process it, and voices of concern from those knowledgeable about its potential
public-health effects. Again, the evidence points to a particularly pernicious
impact on children and the unborn.
And
once again, Ethyl Corporation believes it will prevail in putting a new
additive in your tank. If things go according to Ethyl's plan, manganese will
likely be coming out of American tail pipes as early as next year, long before
anyone can be certain of how dangerous it is.
Likely,
that is, unless the relatively obscure research of a feisty, Scotland-born,
Canadian neurotoxicologist named John Donaldson reaches center stage.
For
the past thirty years, John Donaldson has been studying how brain cells die.
In the process, he and his colleagues have documented that, when enough
neurons in strategic areas of the brain have perished, symptoms such as
tremors and muscular rigidity, similar to those of Parkinson's disease, are
the probable result.
Much
of Donaldson's research has centered on determining how the normal cell-dying
process brought about by aging is accelerated by toxic "hits," which perhaps
go as far back as infancy or even the womb. "An early toxic insult may act
like a computer virus that is inserted into a program," Donaldson explains.
"The effects would not produce symptoms until at least mid-life." In
Parkinson's patients, for example, symptoms don't usually appear until 75
percent of the brain cells that produce a basic chemical called dopamine have
been destroyed.
Donaldson,
who started his work at the University of Manitoba and is now a private
consultant in toxicology in the Ottawa area, had been conducting his research
for about fifteen years when, in the mid-1970s, he came across reports about
manganese that aroused his curiosity. There are a number of reasons why the
metal had not been a prime suspect in brain disease. It is one of the elements
essential for healthy human development and is widely distributed through
water, soil, and air. In fact, most people's daily diets are rich in
manganese-wheat, rice, and tea are examples-and its intake, when ingested, is
generally well regulated by the body.
Donaldson
became suspicious when he read reports of hallucinations, similar to those
suffered by Parkinson's patients, among miners, ore processors, welders, and
battery makers exposed to high levels of manganese in Japan, Chile, Italy,
Morocco, Mexico, Russia, and Romania. In addition, biochemical analysis of
central-nervous-system tissue in humans and monkeys poisoned by manganese
showed that the metal reduced dopamine levels, causing brain cells to die. The
data suggested that manganese could target the region of the brain known as
substantia nigra, where dopamine-containing cells originate and then project
into the basal ganglia region.
Brain-chemistry
disruptions and cell death in these regions appear crucial to the development
of other progressive neurological disorders, including amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), Huntington's chorea, and Alzheimer's.
Discovering the links between manganese and brain disorders, Donaldson found
himself reflecting on the metal's ancient Greek name, manganin, which
means the occult, voodoo, or black magic.
Slowly,
Donaldson and other researchers came to believe that, when inhaled, low doses
of manganese are transformed in the brain to trigger a complex chemical
process resulting in cell death. This, if confirmed, might explain why
manganese in the air could be dangerous, while in food it is generally not.
Probably most vulnerable to the metal's toxic "hit" are infants, young
children, and women, whose defense systems against the retention of excess
manganese have been shown to be less efficient. For these groups, researchers
warn, high levels of ingested manganese may be potentially harmful, as well.
"What
we're talking about here is that manganese is insidious, a stealth toxin,
hitting early and perhaps often and then revealing its damage as we get
older," Donaldson says. His studies on animals suggest that moderate doses of
the metal may disrupt sex-hormone levels and cause impotence. There are also
studies of prisoners that connect high levels of manganese in human hair with
violent behavior, though Donaldson cautions that "a lot of work needs to be
done before we start concluding things about manganese and violence." (See box
for a complete list of the metal's potential health impacts.)
HEALTH THREATS
From high
doses of manganese, workers have suffered:
-
Tremors and muscular rigidity similar to the symptoms of
Parkinson's disease.
-
-
Hallucinations; involuntary laughing and crying.
-
Reduced fertility and spontaneous abortions among spouses.
-
Developmental disorders in children.
-
Respiratory diseases, such as pneumonia and bronchitis.
At low
doses, manganese is believed to cause:
-
Damage
to brain cells, contributing to neurodegenerative diseases.
-
Possible developmental and learning problems in children.
-
Possible violence. According to a recent study by a team headed by
Louis Gottschalk at the University of California at Irvine, people
charged with or imprisoned for violent crimes were found to have
much-higher levels of manganese in their hair than did members of
a control group. The researchers noted that brain lesions or
dysfunctions may be contributing factors in violent behavior, and
that toxic metals have been correlated with these conditions in
both rats and humans.
|
When
he first began investigating the link between exposure to manganese and
brain-cell death, Donaldson considered the issue mainly an intriguing
scientific challenge. But that was before he ran into the folks at the Ethyl
Corporation and found out about their efforts to bring to the public their new
apparent gift of God.
Prior
to passage of the Clean Air Act in 1977, Ethyl had been able to sell some MMT
to U.S. refiners. But back then, the substance's use was limited to the
relatively few companies that needed it to obtain an extra-octane boost over
what the legal limit for TEL could achieve. MMT was also used in some of the
unleaded gasolines that came onto the market in the 1970s, but that stopped
when the Clean Air Act put the onus on Ethyl to prove that its additive would
not lead to the failure of new emissions-control systems.
Since
that time, the EPA and Ethyl have spent most of their time battling over this
technical issue-and not over health questions.
So
far, on three occasions the EPA has denied Ethyl's requests for approval of
MMT. The EPA's latest ruling, however, in January, found that Ethyl's test
data met the agency's technical criteria, except for some discrepancies
between emissions data supplied by Ethyl and data developed by the Ford Motor
Company.
Even
though the EPA had sponsored a conference last year that raised serious
questions about the potential health problems associated with MMT, those
following the behind-the-scenes jockeying between the agency and Ethyl were
alarmed by the January ruling. The particular EPA review process, invoked by
Ethyl's application, was established by the Clean Air Act. It addresses only
vehicle and emissions standards and does not, according to Ethyl, require the
evaluation of health data. This claim worries environmentalists. "It would be
a gross abuse of EPA discretion if [the agency] didn't use its full powers
under the Clean Air Act," says Karen Florini, a lawyer with the Environmental
Defense Fund.
But
Barry Nussbaum, chief of the EPA's field operations and compliance policy
branch, says it is not clear that the agency's discretion in this case can
include the consideration of health data: "I'll be frank with you, it's not a
closed legal issue. There is no simple yes or no to that one."
"We'd
be willing to sit down with Ethyl and try and work out the differences between
their data and Ford's," says Richard Wilson, director of the EPA office that
is handling the proposal. "We've told them that privately and publicly. We're
sympathetic to their problem." EPA administrator William K. Reilly concurs.
"Ethyl's cooperation with the agency...has been excellent," Reilly said in
January. Ethyl vice-president, Gary Ter Haar, who heads up the company's MMT
project, says that the company is willing to conduct "some reasonable
research" to resolve the data discrepancy and suggests that the "EPA could
allow us to use the product and stipulate certain experiments." But he warns
that Ethyl will take the agency to court if it has to in order to get MMT into
U.S. gas tanks more quickly. "We're going to pursue certification [of MMT]
with all the energy we have," vows Ter Haar, "whatever that requires-including
continued discussions with EPA, legal action, and whatever action it takes to
pursue this as aggressively as we can." (In February, Ethyl filed a "petition
for review" of the EPA's latest denial of its application in Federal Appeals
Court in Washington, D.C.)
Ter
Haar rejects any discussion of health issues. As far as he is concerned, that
file is closed, because MMT emissions would be too low to cause any possible
sort of health problem. That, of course, is similar to what his predecessors
said seventy years ago about TEL.
In
fact, Ethyl argues that MMT, rather than proving a threat to health, will
actually help to clean up air pollution. On the basis of its test results, the
company contends that, since fuel burns more efficiently with the additive,
MMT will actually decrease nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emissions and
make possible lower levels of the carcinogenic substance benzene in gasoline.
Altogether, Ethyl's tests indicate, the use of MMT could remove 1.7 billion
pounds of pollutants from U.S. air annually by 1999, and save up to thirty
million barrels of crude oil a year.
Added
to these potential environmental benefits, says Ter Haar, is the company's
position that "pure and simple, the product does not cause adverse [health]
effects."
John
Donaldson and a host of other scientists disagree.
In
1987, Donaldson consolidated all of his knowledge about manganese into a book
chapter commissioned by the National Research Council of Canada. In his draft,
which was submitted to the council before being revised for publication, he
observed that the health risks of MMT had thus far received only cursory
attention, despite the additive's use in Canadian gasoline for a decade.
Soon
he began receiving calls from the Ethyl Corporation, leading him to conclude
that someone in the Canadian government had sent Ethyl his manuscript. But
Ethyl, then preparing for the third time to obtain EPA approval to use the
additive in the United States, asked him to send his ideas for research, which
he decided to do.
Donaldson
said that the "obvious and critical studies" that were necessary would involve
determining how monkeys of different ages process various forms of inhaled
manganese. Periodic brain scans would track the results over a year's time,
and special attention would be paid to the effects on dopamine-containing
cells.
Citing
his previous studies, Donaldson suggested that a "magic-like transformation"
of low-dose manganese occurs in the basal ganglia region of the brain,
triggering the production of chemical assassins known as "free radicals,"
which can damage the cells that make dopamine. "A low-dose hit of manganese
going to the right place might be all that would be needed," he said.
This
scenario is supported by other scientists, including Alejandro Daniels of the
large pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome. "I totally agree with
Donaldson," he says, on the basis of his own animal research.
Michael
Ashner, a neurotoxicologist at Albany Medical College in New York, also backs
Donaldson's theory. Ashner's rat studies have demonstrated that iron
deficiencies can lead to higher concentrations of manganese in the brain. This
is worrisome because iron deficiency is a serious problem worldwide. It is
particularly likely to affect low-income women and children in inner cities,
where MMT levels in air tend to be highest. Infants and young children absorb
and retain more manganese than other people do, and iron deficiency plays a
similar role in the epidemic of lead poisoning among inner-city poor. That is
one especially cruel aspect of both additives-they seem to target the most
vulnerable members of society for damage.
"Much
more research will have to be done to understand better the interplay of iron
and manganese and possibly other metals in brain disorders," Ashner cautions.
"In the meantime, we shouldn't be jumping the gun by rushing into using
manganese in gasoline. The first thing we ought to determine is a safe level
for manganese. We really don't have one now."
Donaldson
agrees: "It makes no bloody sense for Ethyl to put a neurotoxin into the air
before we have a good grasp of what it can do at low levels." He recommended
that Ethyl conduct studies on the reproductive system to determine how
manganese affects sperm levels, the maturation of testes in young animals, and
mating habits. In some studies of the wives of manganese-foundry workers, he
says, "there were increases reported in stillbirths and spontaneous abortions,
and this is something we need to know more about."
But
his cooperation with Ethyl did not produce results. The company opted not to
take Donaldson's advice, because, Ter Haar says, carefully, "We never thought
a program with Donaldson would have a chance at legitimate success."
Last
year, when the EPA held the conference to review the research done on the
health effects of manganese, there was no hint of whether this would affect
its MMT decision. Kathryn Mahaffey, a toxicologist with the National Institute
of Environmental Health Sciences, who attended the sessions, says: "Very
little is known about the effects of exposure to low-to-moderate doses of
manganese. Anyone who thinks we have the answers to these questions is not
looking at the issue carefully."
The
biggest uncertainty of all is whether that lack of knowledge will be used as a
reason to approve the use of MMT, or to delay it.
One
basic question lurks behind the debate every time a government agency
considers banning a substance that seems potentially harmful to human health
and the environment. Despite all the environmental legislation of the past two
decades, that question-Is it up to the manufacturer to prove a product safe,
or the government to prove it dangerous? - remains unresolved. Those primarily
concerned with industrial progress argue that products should be considered
innocent until proven guilty; those who place their highest priorities on
health and safety say that the burden of proof should lie with the private
interests who profit from government approval.
When
the predecessors of today's EPA officials faced this dilemma back in the
1920s, they addressed it by creating what was supposed to be an impartial
scientific inquiry into TEL, but what was in fact an inquiry carefully
controlled by industry: General Motors was allowed to fund (as well as to
review and control the release of) a government study conducted by the Bureau
of Mines, which, not surprisingly, determined TEL to be safe. In addition,
certain established public-health specialists were secretly recruited by
industry to speak out in favor of TEL.
Today,
everything has changed and nothing has changed. The essential question of
whether Ethyl has to prove MMT safe or the EPA has to prove it dangerous is
still an open one. It appears that the ambiguity that worked for Ethyl in the
past may be working again.
The
EPA's position seems to be that the data necessary to make a proper risk
assessment is not available. As to any difference this might make in its MMT
ruling, the agency remains silent.
Speaking
for the EPA, Richard Wilson explains: "Our health researchers would like to
see some additional data to make them feel more comfortable. They don't think
it's a major health threat. It's one of those handwringers. If that was the
only issue, you'd have to decide if the uncertainty was enough to tell them
they can't market it until they do the testing, or let them go ahead and
require them to do testing, or just let them go ahead and let well enough be.
In these types of issues, you don't decide until you have to decide."
This
approach signals danger to those familiar with how TEL originally got into
gasoline. Toxicologist Ellen Silbergeld, formerly with the Environmental
Defense Fund and now at the University of Maryland, warns: "MMT is exactly
lead. All you have to do is substitute the word 'lead' and you'll have what
they said [back in 1925]." In each case, Silbergeld points out, no data is
available "on the potential cumulative health effects of massive inputs of a
toxic metal into the environment." Again, Ethyl argues that the amount of
manganese in gasoline is insignificant in health terms but very important for
the nation's economy. "As Yogi Berra once said," Silbergeld concludes," 'deja
vu all over again.' "
Last
year, to back up its position that MMT is safe, Ethyl Corporation sampled
twenty-five people in Toronto, including office workers and cab drivers fitted
with monitors to measure their exposure. The office workers' manganese levels
averaged 0.013 micrograms per cubic meter per workday, and the cab drivers'
0.035 micrograms. Others tested between these two extremes.
The
company compared these readings to the "safe level" of 1 microgram per cubic
meter set by both the World Health Organization and the California state
government on the basis of industrial exposure to the heavy metal. "This is
proof that MMT in gasoline poses no health risk," says Ethyl's Ter Haar.
The
Toronto test is reminiscent of an earlier study, on lead exposure, which was
performed on gas-station attendants and chauffeurs in Dayton and Cincinnati
during the 1920s at the instigation of the U.S. surgeon general's office.
Though that study demonstrated that low levels of TEL were stored in human
tissue, the committee of scientists reviewing the data did not find the
results alarming enough to recommend against allowing the substance in
gasoline.
Recognizing,
however, that the storage of low levels of lead over time might lead to
disease, the committee called for a longer-term follow-up study. But it was
never performed; instead, government officials went ahead and allowed TEL in
gas.
Today,
scientists know that it is precisely the buildup of lead in the environment
that creates the threat to those most at risk. And, Silbergeld and others
warn, the dispersal of manganese via car exhaust risks a replay of the lead
disaster.
Much,
therefore, rests on how the EPA will rule. If, as Ethyl Corporation hopes, the
agency approves the additive, MMT will be here for years to come. Then, even
if MMT is eventually established, like TEL, to be a public-health threat, it
will be too late for the thousands or millions of people whose capacities for
full lives have been reduced by exposure to it. And experience shows that any
future battle to get the substance out of gasoline, once it's in, will be a
slow and difficult one.
Meanwhile,
there is evidence that the phaseout of leaded gas has at least temporarily
improved the quality of life for inner-city children. Dr. Sergio Piomelli of
Columbia Children's Hospital in New York City recently reported that the
number of local kids with elevated levels of lead in their blood has, since
the phaseout began, fallen from about thirty thousand to fifteen hundred-a
reduction of 95 percent.
The
question now facing the EPA is whether these same children will soon be
breathing a new form of black magic in place of the old.
