I recently caught up on my Netflix queue and watched episode seven of Cosmos, and was delighted to learn about one of the greatest heroes of the 20th century that I had never heard of.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called water fluoridation the greatest public health achievement of the 20th Century. Clearly, they got that WRONG.

Many have forgotten that leaded gasoline was used for 80 years before the lead was removed, despite the fact that its toxicity has been known for at least 2,000 years.

Clair Patterson, PhD was instrumental in defeating the oil industry and getting lead removed from gas, and that definitely beats water fluoridation in terms of protecting public health.

Patterson is an unsung public health hero of the 20th century that most people have never heard of. The featured video is a 30-minute summary of the evolution of leaded gas, and ultimately, its removal, which was no small feat.

You can watch episode seven of Cosmos on Netflix for the full story, or watch this hidden gem video at the top of the page that took me hours of online searching to find. I was really surprised, actually shocked, that this story is not plastered all over YouTube.

Most likely this is related to the fact the story is 50 years old. Nevertheless, please watch the video as it is a very powerful testimony that will help put a perspective on many of the health challenges we face today.

The auto and chemical industries used the same techniques back then as they do now; promoting, defending, manipulating government officials, and molding public opinion in order to profit from a toxic product, all while knowing exactly the kind of harm it causes.

My hope is that the videos and this powerful story will motivate and inspire you to become a health advocate in your local community. It may take decades, and you may be vilified, but ultimately you will enjoy sweet victory by protecting millions of innocents from being harmed.

The History of Leaded Gasoline

In the 1920s, lead was added to gasoline in order to make it a more efficient fuel. At that time, it was already well known that lead caused neurological harm, especially to children, in which it has been shown to lower IQ.

The first automobiles produced used all sorts of fuels — anything that would turn over a combustion engine, including benzene from coal, synthetic gasolines, and alcohol from farm crops.

A number of European countries used blends of alcohol as their primary fuel, and alcohol was predicted to become the choice of the future. It was more expensive than oil however, which made it less attractive.

Once the high compression engine was invented, car manufacturers started running into performance problems. General Motors diagnosed the problem, realizing that the problem originated with the fuel.

Large amounts of money were invested to figure out how to raise the octane level to reduce engine knocking. General Motors tried about 15,000 different combinations of elements to find a solution to the problem.

Adding benzene from coal to gasoline was found to work. Ditto for adding grain alcohol. Adding 10 percent alcohol to gasoline raised the quality of the fuel, causing less knocking in the engine. It also had other benefits, including clean combustion, which eliminated soot emissions, and increased horsepower without engine knocking.

But as research continued, General Motors determined that adding lead to the gasoline produced “an ideal anti-knock fuel.” It was ideal because manufacturing the lead additive, tetraethyl lead, would allow them to make the greatest profits.

They were very careful to avoid using the word “lead,” a known poison. Instead they created a rather benign sounding euphemistic chemical derivative from tetraethyl lead and called it “ethyl.” They even branded it with a female named Ethyl.

Standard Oil, the biggest oil company in the US, partnered with General Motors, creating a joint corporation known as Ethyl Corporation.

Ironically, the lead researcher at General Motors ended up with lead poisoning from the experiments, yet he still marveled about the profits the company stood to make.