The Secret History of Lead (Page 14)

But There Is No Alternative

Misrepresenting the Surgeon General's committee report findings and glossing over its call for further study, Ethyl medical consultant Robert Kehoe recalled in a 1928 article the government's abdication of its charge: "As it appeared from [the committee's] investigation that there was no evidence of immediate danger to the public health, it was thought that these necessarily expensive studies should not be repeated at present, at public expense, but that they should be continued at the expense of the industry most concerned, subject, however, to the supervision of the Public Health Service." His own study, Kehoe wrote unsurprisingly, failed to "show any evidence for the existence of such hazards."

Others were less sanguine about the committee's report and Kehoe's summary of the evidence. Committee member Dr. David Edsall, dean of Harvard's School of Public Health, called the report incomplete and "half-baked." C.E.A. Winslow of Yale recommended that "the search for an investigation of antiknock compounds be continued intensively with the object of securing effective agents containing less poisonous metals (such as iron, nickel, tin, etc.) or no metals at all." Winslow unsuccessfully sought to have the committee mention alternatives to TEL in its final report, forwarding this recommendation to the PHS, along with correspondence from the Ford Motor Company. One letter to Winslow, which is missing from the PHS files in the National Archive but present in his Yale University archive, dated August 15, 1925, reads:

Alcohols for motor fuel

Further to my letter of June 19th:

You may probably have observed the production of synthetic alcohol as brought by the Badische Anilin and Soda Fabrik [BASF of I.G. Farben], now being produced in Germany at the rate of 60,000 gallons per month. Such alcohol is reported to be produced for between 10 cents and 20 cents per gallon and has much promise as a mixture with hydrocarbon [gasoline] fuels to eliminate knocking and carbonization.

[signed] Wm. H. Smith, Ford Motor Co.

Surgeon General Cumming was not interested in alternatives to lead, even though proof of their existence ought to have immediately thrown the veracity of all Ethyl utterances into question. Speaking in August 1925, for instance, Thomas Midgley had told a meeting of scientists, "So far as science knows at the present time, tetraethyl lead is the only material available which can bring about these [antiknock] results, which are of vital importance to the continued economic use by the general public of all automotive equipment, and unless a grave and inescapable hazard rests in the manufacture of tetraethyl lead, its abandonment cannot be justified."

Midgley had conveniently overlooked his earlier, high-profile endorsement of ethanol, as would Kettering and the entire US press corps. Kettering was also forgetting Synthol, the octane-boosting alternative he had publicized just months earlier when it looked like Ethyl might be forced to close shop. With the government's de facto seal of approval in hand for TEL, Kettering never again mentioned Synthol. Summarizing his remarks before the Surgeon General's committee, the New York Times reported: "The experience of the company does not offer any promise that any such cheap and efficient anti-knock can be discovered to replace the lead."

Uncle Sam Lends a Hand

Far from heeding his committee's call for the initiation of further studies on the effects of widespread use of tetraethyl lead, the Surgeon General thrust himself quickly into the role of international cheerleader for Ethyl's lead gasoline additive. In 1928 England's Daily Mail quoted British scientists voicing fear over the potential public health hazard posed by TEL, which was soon to be introduced to the British market by the Anglo-American oil company brand Pratt's. Ethyl's new president, Earle Webb, apprised Surgeon General Cumming of this development and received a warm, familiar response. "Your courtesy in keeping us informed of such developments is helpful and I am grateful for its continuance," Cumming replied, before contacting the British ministry.

Soon thereafter, England's Ministry of Health would give TEL a clean bill of health, referring to American findings. This would be hard to jibe with a soon-to-be-published report in the British Medical Journal on "the slow, subtle, insidious saturation of the system by infinitesimal doses of lead extending over a long period of time," but Cumming wasn't through yet.

Foreshadowing years of sterling service on behalf of Ethyl, the Surgeon General, the nation's highest-ranking medical officer, would put pen to paper again in 1928, encouraging New York City sanitary officials to lift the city's ban on the use of TEL-laced gasoline. "There are no good grounds" for the ban, he implored them. In 1931 Cumming would further assist Ethyl's overseas marketing efforts. Cabling the PHS offices from an international conference in Paris, the Surgeon General directed his minions to send the Swiss minister of health favorable reports on Ethyl.

In 1932 the du Pont family would temporarily shift party allegiance and support to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential bid with a sizable contribution to his campaign fund. The Democratic Administration was swift to return the favor. A year after FDR's inauguration, the Surgeon General would busy himself writing letters of introduction for Ethyl officials to public health counterparts in foreign countries.

"This will introduce you to Mr. E.W. Webb, President of the Ethyl Gasoline Corp." the letters began. Cumming helpfully assured recipients that Webb had consulted with the PHS and that the PHS had found Ethyl an excellent product and given it a clean bill of health. He also fired off missives advancing Ethyl's cause with pesky state legislatures and public health authorities in the United States who were erecting regulatory hurdles.

By 1936 Ethyl fluid would be added to 90 percent of gasoline sold in America--a resounding commercial success. But even this would not be enough. Responding to a complaint lodged by Ethyl that year, the Federal Trade Commission issued a restraining order preventing competitors from criticizing leaded gasoline in the commercial marketplace. Ethyl gasoline, the FTC order read, "is entirely safe to the health of motorists and the public...and is not a narcotic in its effect, a poisonous dope, or dangerous to the life or health of a customer, purchaser, user or the general public." The FTC's action on Ethyl's behalf came in the wake of an ad by the makers of unleaded Cushing Gasoline, who meekly proposed, "It stands on its own merits and needs no dangerous chemicals--hence you can offer it to your customers without doubt or fear."

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