SUCCESSFUL ELIMINATION OF LEADED GASOLINE TO SAVE 1.2MLN LIVES PER YEAR

Tue 31 August 2021:

The successful global effort to end the use of leaded gasoline, or petroleum will save 1.2 million lives and save $2.45 trillion a year, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) announced on Monday.

“Official end of [the] use of leaded petrol will prevent more than 1.2 million premature deaths and save $2.45 trillion a year,” UNEP said in a press release.

When service stations in Algeria stopped providing leaded petrol in July, the use of leaded petrol ended globally, following an almost two decades long campaign by the UNEP-led global Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles, the release said.

“[The year] 2021 has marked the end of leaded petrol worldwide, after it has contaminated air, dust, soil, drinking water and food crops for the better part of a century. Leaded petrol causes heart disease, stroke and cancer. It also affects the development of the human brain, especially harming children,” the release added.

Since1922, the use of tetraethyllead as a petrol additive to improve engine performance has been a catastrophe for the environment and public health. When UNEP began its campaign to eliminate lead in petrol in 2002, it was one of the most serious environmental threats to human health, according to the release.

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