Chicago—People would be shocked to know that the United States still allows lead to contaminate our air and enter and harm our bodies in one of the most insidious ways, this day and age.  Yet, this is what allowed in aircraft gas.

Strongly calling for human health testing and mitigation, including free medical assistance, a coalition of experts submitted their startling and cited findings to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in a Petition Requesting Rulemaking To Limit Lead Emissions from General Aviation Aircraft.

Since the 1990s the organizations have been making the EPA aware of the significantly serious public health problem caused by aviation-generated lead pollution.

Aviation gasoline fuel (100 LL) is now the major source of lead in ambient air.  It is currently the fuel with the greatest alkyl-lead (TEL) content, ranging from 4.4x10-3 to 8.8x10-3 lbs as lead/gal.

Quite different from ground-based emitters, whose emissions fall to the ground and/or are assimilated within about 750 feet of the source, this hazardous substance (lead) is emitted in fine particles overhead, like from a toxic-crop duster, exposing a large percentage of the population to bodily harm.

As the EPA has confirmed, the great majority of aircraft particulate emissions, including heavy metals, are PM 2.5 (more typically PM1.0), and the EPA is aware of the extraordinary harm that these inhaled ultra-fine particulates can have on human health.

It is also well established that lead is responsible for most cases of pediatric heavy metal poisoning.

Note: areas around airports, within at least a 20-mile radius, provide long-term exposure. It is a possible carcinogen, and, unlike metallic forms of lead, alkyl-lead is also easily absorbed through the skin: “The effects of lead are the same, whether it enters the body through breathing or swallowing. Lead can affect almost every organ and system in your body. The main target for lead toxicity is the nervous system, both in adults and children. Long-term exposure of adults can result in decreased performance in some tests that measure functions of the nervous system. It may also cause weakness in fingers, wrists, or ankles. Lead exposure also causes small increases in blood pressure, particularly in middle-aged and older people and can cause anemia. Exposure to high lead levels can severely damage the brain and kidneys in adults or children and ultimately cause death. In pregnant women, high levels of exposure to lead may cause miscarriage. High level exposure in men can damage the organs responsible for sperm production.”

There are tested and viable alternative fuels as mentioned in the comments, among them, 100% denatured ethanol (E95), certified through the FAA’s Supplemental Type certification process beginning in 1990.  Using the same process, Brazilian Agricultural Pilots have flown over 800,000 hours of trouble free spray operations on 100% ethanol.  This proves there is a viable unleaded alternative to leaded Avgas, which is incidentally, less than ½ the cost.

It is probably criminal, if not at least embarrassing, that the United States is one of the few industrialized nations to have not banned lead, especially, from such an airborne source, which must be insidiously harming significant numbers of our populace.

As mentioned above, the coalition strongly calls on officials for human health testing and mitigation, including free medical assistance.

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Editor’s note: Sources and citations available upon request.