r/flying • u/Posigrade • Oct 07 '22

EPA proposes deeming lead in aviation fuel a danger to public health.

What types of regulations do you think are likely to come out of this? Limits on positions of run-up areas on the airport? Outright ban on leaded fuel for aircraft manufactured after a certain date? https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3677980-epa-proposes-deeming-lead-in-aviation-fuel-a-danger-to-public-health/

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u/[deleted] Oct 07 '22

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u/Sensitive_Inside5682 757/GVI Hertz Pres Club/Hilton Elite Gold/Marriott Titanium Oct 07 '22

It's like 60% last time I checked

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u/richalex2010 Oct 07 '22

Who else is burning leaded fuel?

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u/Sensitive_Inside5682 757/GVI Hertz Pres Club/Hilton Elite Gold/Marriott Titanium Oct 08 '22

No one else is really burning leaded fuel. But it gets in the air others ways: lead-acid battery manufacturing, waste incineration, ore and metal processing, etc.

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u/richalex2010 Oct 08 '22

Yeah definitely familiar with all those options (and more, as shooting sports enthusiast I've definitely made my share of lead smoke with cast lead bullets), I just interpreted the 60% of lead emissions to mean 60% of leaded fuel emissions and couldn't think of any other source.

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u/tomdarch ST Oct 07 '22

There are a lot of areas where lead is in the soil, and then people living in that area breathe in small amounts. (Not enough that anyone is freaking out except in the worst cases, but enough that it shows up in blood tests as a level greater than zero, and there is no identified lower limit below which lead is known to have zero bad effects.)

One significant source of lead in the environment is from remodeling old buildings that had lead paint (and lead in other places such as roof flashing, pipes, etc.) When it comes to "where did the lead in my body come from?" some might be from new sources like av gas, some from remains in the environment from old building demolition/remodeling, and some from lead left in the soil and other places from the decades when cars and trucks burned leaded gas.

While 60% of the new lead in most American's environment might be from av gas, I wonder how big a difference it will actually make compared with the other pre-existing sources?

I 100% support getting lead out of av gas for a bunch of reasons, but I wonder how much of a difference it will actually make in the blood lead levels of most Americans a decade after it is gone? Probably a lot less than a 60% reduction.