Review of Environmental Stress Model: 
The Example of Tetraethyl Lead (TEL) Pollution
Review of Environmental Stress Model:
The Example of Tetraethyl Lead (TEL) Pollution
A. Modeling Causes and Effects of TEL Pollution
For background, recall previous discussion of a general model of environmental stress.
HERE we
apply the model to help understand lead pollution from tetraethyl lead (TEL). This
exercise reinforces how the model can be used to interpret a specific environmental issue.
Further, this analysis shows corporate capitalism to be the basic cause of
lead pollution from leaded gasoline. Below
click on 
to get more information (in new window).
| basic cause | general causes | proximate cause | enviro stress | proximate effects | general effects | extended effects (on humans) |
| Corporate capitalism  (Ethyl Corp.; auto, oil and tire corporations; road-builders; etc.) |
TEL developed to allow high- compression engines in cars (technology) Industry lies that TEL would do Biased promotion of benefits of TEL (= "Ethyl")
Shift from Consumption overpopulation Interstate highway system sold on grounds of militarism Roads expanded |
|
lead |
lead emitted
|
|
kidney disease human brain and
immune
impaired
death of |
B. Analyzing TEL Pollution in Detail
Recall our previous discussion of analyzing an environmental stress in detail. There it was recommended that, for a given environmental stress or problem, a set of specific questions be answered.
The utility of this approach can be seen by applying each of the questions to the problem of pollution by tetraethyl lead (TEL).
First, however, it is helpful to estimate the developmental stage of the TEL issue. (Is it incipient, emergent, crisis, abating, or residual?)
TEL pollution presently is residual, though because of lead's persistence in soils and dust its injurious health effects will continue for a very long time. Choosing a problem for analysis that is in the residual stage of development provides a benefit of hindsight. Thus a more detailed and accurate picture can be drawn, compared to analyzing an emergent or crisis problem.
In the United States, the TEL pollution problem began in the 1920s, emerged in the 1930s and 1940s, rose to crisis level in the 1970s and early 1980s, and then abated as TEL was phased out of gasoline.
Though much scientific understanding of TEL's environmental and human effects has accrued, public knowledge is fading, as the issue is back-page news at best.
The capitalist economic response-- especially of those most guilty-- is, if possible, to ignore the lead problem. If forced to act, capitalists will socialize (or externalize) costs, to preserve their capital "at all costs". They will pursue and welcome society's underwriting of their wrongs, while railing against "socialism" in other forms.
In TEL's residual stage, the public response typically is reduced to local voices, mainly those of lead-poisoned victims and their families.
The governmental response to the problem of residual lead pollution from TEL commonly is declining levels of help, and negligence in the enforcement of existing regulations.
| Stage | Knowledge/ Understanding of Problem | Capitalist Economic Response | Public Response | Political/ Governmental Response |
| Abating | put on back page | socialize costs | again local only | some structural reform |
| Residual | archival | ignore | only victims recall | reforms weakened |
Armed with this knowledge about the developmental stage of TEL pollution, we are better prepared to answer the analytical questions below.
1. Describe the core of the environmental stress, including proximate causes and proximate effects.
From the 1920s to 1986, U.S. motor vehicles emitted into the air 7 million metric tons (15.4 billion pounds) of lead derived from the gasoline additive TEL. Most of this lead settled and concentrated in soil near busy roads; because lead is an element it does not degrade or disappear over time, though it may be redistributed.
2. What extended effects of the stress are significant (both upstream and downstream)?
Upstream, lead poisoning can occur during the mining of lead ore, lead smelting, and manufacture of tetraethyl lead. For instance, lead poisoning at TEL manufacturing plants has killed many workers and harmed countless more.
Most significantly, downstream, lead particles can be inhaled and ingested, and accumulate in the human body. Consequently, lead can injure or kill humans through: kidney disease; human reproductive damage; brain and nervous system damage; anemia and other blood disorders; immune system damage; birth defects; hearing loss; impaired neurologic development; mental retardation; and death of fetuses and young children.
3. Who gains and who loses from these extended effects, and what/how?
Gains from such lead poisoning are limited to those who profit from caring for victims in profit-oriented sectors of the "health care industry."
Losses, of various kinds, are widely suffered, including by: the victims, their families and friends; hired health and social caregivers; costs incurred by society for health, social and educational help provided to victims; and potential contributions to society that are lost due to injury-- all of these not just in the past and present, but for generation to come!
4. How does the stress contribute to, or impede, sustainable relations between humans and environment?
The stress of lead pollution from TEL and its consequences impede sustainable relations between humans and environment, by: degrading the quality of human resources; absorbing human and other resources for victim care which otherwise could be put to more constructive use; limiting options for future generations, who must continue to cope with the lead pollution and exposure; and decreasing diversity and vitality of ecosystems, within which humans must ultimately adapt.
5. What are the general and basic causes of the stress?
Major general causes of lead pollution from TEL are: (1) TEL developed and pushed by auto, fuel and chemical corporations to allow high-compression engines in cars (technology); (2) corporate lies foisted on the public that TEL would do no harm (disinformation); (3) biased, self-serving industry promotion of ostensible benefits of TEL or "Ethyl" as a gasoline additive; (4) the corporate conspiracy (by GM, National City Lines, and others) which forced the U.S. shift from mass transit to individual cars (including car culture attitudes); (5) consumption overpopulation; (6) interstate highway system sold on grounds of militarism; (7) roads expanded using appropriated fuel taxes, and pay-offs to influence politicians.
The paramount basic cause, which largely drove the general causes cited above, is corporate capitalism. The capitalists' compulsion to maximize short-term private financial profits, and the forceful steps they took in the 1920s to achieve them-- despite sound scientific, medical, and public objections-- has been well documented (e.g., Lead in Gasoline and references there).
6. Who benefits most from activities causing the stress?
Since TEL's invention in 1922, its production and sales have yielded corporate and stockholder profits measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The major direct profiteers have been Ethyl Corporation (optional link)-- a 1924 corporate offspring of giants Du Pont and General Motors)-- Du Pont Chemical, Standard Oil of N.J. (now Exxon), Great Lakes Chemical Corporation, and Octel. (Optionally, see "Who still produces tetraethyl lead?"-- about Octel)
Indirect profits from TEL have flowed to owners of: many oil and fuel companies; automobile manufacturers, suppliers and dealers; road-builders; and, more recently, pollution clean-up firms and for-profit health companies. Perhaps it also can be said that several past generations of American drivers have slightly benefited from the higher octane fuels and the high-compression engines that they allow.
7. What solutions to the stress have been taken or proposed? (Include both sham and actual solutions, with examples of each.)
Finally, in 1996 after two decades of phase-down, the U.S. prohibited sale of leaded gasoline for on-road use. So at least almost no new lead from TEL is now being emitted into the air in this country. But the "lead legacy" from TEL use remains in soils and dust, and very little is being done or planned to clean up these reservoirs of poison. Further, TEL sales abroad are booming, promoted mainly by the U.S.-based corporations Ethyl, Great Lakes Chemical, and Octel.
Solutions to continuing lead pollution from TEL should include: (1) total prohibition of U.S. TEL sales for off-road vehicles and as a do-it-yourself fuel additive; (2) U.S. prohibition of TEL manufacture and export; and (3) global agreement to end all manufacture, sales, and use of TEL.
Solutions to earlier lead pollution from TEL in the U.S. should include: (1) intense, effective informational campaigns to inform the public about the causes and dangers of environmental lead; (2) universal testing of all urban children and pregnant women for blood-lead, with prompt, appropriate medical treatment for individuals at risk; (3) provide appropriate care for individuals, families and communities that are suffering significantly from lead poisoning; (4) development of specific plans and schedules for remediating lead hazards from soils in cities, attacking the worst cases first; (5) establishment of legal means for holding as liable those corporations that have caused TEL poisoning, including their officials, directors, and shareholders; and (6) prosecution of the responsible parties, to retrieve funds sufficient to completely implement steps 1-4 above, even if it means complete bankrupcy of those parties; and (7) imprisonment of the most guilty persons.
8. What can you do, both directly and indirectly, to lessen the stress?
[Answers to be provided by groups investigating solutions to lead pollution!]
Thomas Detwyler maintains this page (tdetwyle@uwsp.edu)
Last updated 13 March 2001
� Copyright 1998-2001 by Thomas Detwyler