No Longer in the Lead

In The Shadows of Consumption by Peter Dauvergne, leaded gasoline is one of the shadows. Leaded gasoline was created by Thomas Midgley to increase the efficiency of gasoline in automobiles at the lime. It went on sale February of 1923 without any research on potential health effects. This gasoline quickly gained attraction and although there were signals of the health effects, these were ignored. In the 1930s Leaded gasoline was in the lead, since 90% of the gasoline consumed in the United States. However, by the 1980s Ethyl, the company that provided leaded gasoline, was out of business in the United States. Globally, leaded gasoline is almost gone although, total elimination is still in process.