The US phased out the use of leaded gasoline for automobiles in 1996 but many small aircraft continue to run on it. It is disturbing to some experts on public health, because lead is a potent neurotoxin, and lead to the aviation gas is now the largest contributor to the nation of lead pollution in the air. And studies suggest that people who live near or work in airports may have high levels of lead in their blood. Consequently, advocates for years have pushed the aviation industry to get the lead aviation gasoline, or avgas.
Last week brought a milestone in this effort. The Center for Environmental Health (CEH), an advocacy group based in Oakland, California, announced a legal settlement with 30 companies that sell or distribute avgas lead in California, bringing closure to a long trial that been closely watched in the small -Construction community. Under the regulation, companies must sell the lowest leaded petrol which is commercially available in sufficient quantities, warn the public about exposure to lead hazards by signs displayed in airports and notices sent to nearby residences, and pay a total of $ 550,000 in penalties and legal costs.
"We are very optimistic that he will make a transition [away from leaded avgas] happen," said Caroline Cox, research director of CEH. It is a change, she said, that "should have happened back when they passed cars away from leaded gasoline."
Lead is added to avgas to prevent engine knock, which can cause safety problems during the flight. Avgas is the last remaining lead in transport fuel in the United States, where about 167,000 mainly small aircraft piston engine use, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). (commercial Aircraft and many business jets use unleaded jet lead.) Approximately 480 tonnes of lead avgas were released to the air of the country in 2011, more than half of the total amount released lead this year, according to the environmental protection Agency. in 2013, the agency found that two of the 17 airports where lead emissions were monitored exceeds its quality standards the air to lead, both in California.
Phasing lead auto gas, and its ban in household paint and other measures, is credited with a dramatic drop in the mean levels of lead in the blood of American children since the 1970s emissions of lead in avgas air are much lower than past emissions of lead from automobile gas. Yet a 2011 study found that children living a kilometer of airports in North Carolina where planes avgas use had higher levels of lead in their blood than children living farther. A 2013 study showed that the aircraft maintenance workers at airports that sold lead avgas had higher levels of lead in the blood that workers in airports that do not.
CEH initiated legal proceedings in May 2011 under Safe Drinking Toxic Enforcement Act of Water and California, also known as Proposition 65. The state is home to more than 0 airports serving small aircraft, but CEH targeted companies operating at 23 of the busiest those located near population centers, said Cox. Some in the industry worried costume mean the end of AVGAS sale and grounding of 37,000 avgas-using aircraft in California, where the settlement avoids.
Ray Richmond, CEO of Crownair Aviation in San Diego, said the long legal battle hurt its business, costing tens of thousands of dollars, including legal fees and more than $ 7,000 in penalties imposed by Regulation. Richmond said that the main beneficiaries appear to be lawyers rather than the environment through reductions in fuel and lead content that companies like his reality have little control over what fuel they can offer. "I'm glad it is over," he said. "The impact for us is that there is a lot of money to spend on something that we do not think that solves the real problem."
Alternatives to lead avgas exist for many aircraft, but they are not widely available in airports. About three-quarters of US planes that run on avgas could use regular gasoline automotive unleaded, provided it is free of ethanol. But only about 100 US airports offer it-a small fraction of the approximately 20,000 in the country. The regulation requires distributors to offer this fuel AVGAS mogas-called at any avgas in California seller based at the airport making the request, subject to several conditions.
Another alternative is a kind of avgas known as 100VLL name, for "very low lead," which has a maximum lead content of 19% lower than standard avgas and is usable by entire fleet burn avgas. She, too, is rarely sold and is unavailable in California. Cox said she is optimistic the settlement will help bring fuel not only in California but also at the national level by creating demand. "Our hope is that we have all these airports in California that have committed to buy as it becomes available this creates a market demand and company will start providing," she said.
the aviation industry has long been that the best solution is one unleaded alternative fuel that will work for all aircraft now burning leaded avgas. avgas the market is so small, industry officials say it will never make economic sense to sell more than one fuel at airports serving the AVGAS. FAA customers with broad industry support, is working to identify a replacement unleaded avgas. in 2011, the agency has announced a target make available a 2018, but a recent press release said that tests candidates fuels would be completed by then.
Although he expressed his satisfaction with the terms of the agreement, Mark Willey, CEO of Napa Jet Center, a defendant in the lawsuit, said he and other stakeholders to reduce aviation fuel lead content will probably wait for replacement, the resolution of the FAA or regulation.
in the end, a federal regulation requiring a transition nationally for unleaded gasoline is what is needed, said Marcie Keever, legal director of Friends of the Earth in Berkeley, California , an advocacy group that was not involved in the trial of CEH. Nevertheless, Keever said the regulation is a step in the right direction. "It helps us to get on the road to make lead free and make people aware that there is a possibility to go lead-free," she said.
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