The Big End - In Favour of Friendly Fuel

The current situation with the proposed leaded fuel prohibition is somewhat confused. The petrol chemical companies are pussy footing around or so it seems.

What a terrible dilemma we now have with the Greens and MPs forcing through legislation to ban a fuel that is widely maligned in favour of a fuel many times more dangerous to our health and in some cases, harmful to our classic pride and joy.

What seemed a good idea, when the government announced their intentions and ignored any opposition around at that time, was, I fear, a misjudgment, and one that the future will remember.

Just to add to the injustices we have to endure, a new viewpoint has crept into the arena in that classic cars are more damaging to the environment than the modern counterpart. Not in any way. Not now or ever. To that I must add what a load of cod's wallop.

Let us look at the comparison between leaded and unleaded petrol. In the case of the older vehicle running on leaded petrol, that is petrol containing tetra-ethyl lead (TEL), this lead, when burnt in the combustion chamber, is subjected to around 2000 to 3000 degrees centigrade and is actually baked like a house brick. When these heavy particles of lead are emitted from the exhaust, they rapidly fall to the ground within ten to twelve feet, so unless you are standing on your head to which you have fitted a roller skate, and following close behind a vehicle, you are unlikely to ingest any of these particles. It has also been proved that these particles, when subjected to tests with various acids, and particularly stomach acid, shows no signs of dissolving. Unlike dust it cannot be dissolved into the lungs. Any lead dust certainly does not come from car exhausts.

Records of lead in blood go back to around the beginning of the 1930's until the middle 80's, yet as can be seen lead was first added to fuel in the 20s and peaked in 1970, how is it then that blood levels declined? This shows a contradiction to what has been put about.

One positive fact has been noted that a group of islanders off the coast of Scotland, who do not have any petrol burning vehicles, when tested for lead in their blood, showed a much higher lead level per head of population, compared to a similar group test in the middle of Birmingham. Much the same results have been made with some New Guinea Highlanders against people from Melbourne, Australia. In the case of our Scottish people it was attributed to them drinking out of Pewter tankards. Pewter is of course a lead-based alloy. Lead can be harmful because of direct contact by ingestion from lead based solder used by canneries and lead water pipes. These items are being gradually phased out, although we still have plenty of lead pipes around in older properties.

The only damage that leaded petrol does is to Catalytic Converters, because it will clog the catalyst's fine substrate which carries a chemical composition used for reducing hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides.

Catalysts are not very efficient as they only work when they reach a temperature of 400-deg c and their life span is limited to 50,000 miles.
As you can see this is all too obviously a poor attempt at a compromise, and a huge con. I also suspect that in returns of profit for the refiners and revenue for the government, it is biased to their advantage and to hell with the rest of us.

Now for this so-called green fuel. We are to be subjected to an absolute monster, which will be proved as one of the biggest blunders of all time. More than half a litre from a gallon of Unleaded Petrol is in fact not petrol at all. It is a brew of aromatics, which if brewed by a witch could not be more evil. These carcinogenic (Cancer & Leukaemia inducing) elements are Dimethybenzene, Mesitylene, Toluene, Xylene and Benzene. Remember this last one, when the government removed cans of Coke from supermarket shelves because it was thought that they contained trace elements of Benzene? What about that? How is it then when we go into a petrol station, us who burn leaded, and we have to be subjected by these so called Greens, by having to breathe in far greater quantities of this harmful Benzene and the other dangerous substances, "Yuck".

If at all possible I have now adopted the practice of placing my vehicle upwind at a petrol station whenever I fill up. It is a known fact that Benzene in particular acts on many body tissues and organs, so it is advisable not to ingest it or get it splashed onto any skin areas. If you do, it must be washed off as quickly as possible. It would also make sense to wear breathing masks whenever you are likely to inhale this repugnant concoction. Unlike the lead, which rapidly drops to the ground, the aromatics float right up to the stratosphere and are all around us so we can't escape. What, I ask, is it doing to our children and their future?

If we are to really be as green as we can, I still believe we should run our vehicles on LPG gas, as this is the least damaging fuel there is.

The Government must show a new lead and a full public evaluation made. The facts are clear but alas the intent is somewhat dubious.

I've said it before and I will again We Have Been Duped.

© Chris Street. February 2, 1999