EPA Study Backs Cut in Lead Use in Gas

Recently the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Policy Analysis quietly released for public comment a study that concluded the U.S. could reap health and environmental benefits totaling nearly a quarter of a billion dollars or more if all or nearly all lead were removed from gasoline by 1988. Except perhaps for fluoridation of water and creationism, nothing raises the dander of affected groups faster than the issue of lead. And EPA's study quickly elicited both accolades and brickbats. Former Carter EPA official William Drayton, who is now chairman of an environmental health coalition called the American Environmental Safety Council, says this study is "one of the highest quality staff studies I've seen." Vice chairman of the board of Ethyl Corp. Lawrence E. Blanchard Jr. says that a "juvenile and simplistic approach is now being taken by EPA to justify their efforts to further reduce lead in gasoline." Ethyl is the nation's largest producer of tetraethyllead, ...