US Government report reveals nearly 1,000 tons of lead dust dumped on population every year from airplanes
‘Leaded gasoline is a thing of the past for automobiles. But a recent government report explains that leaded “avgas,” as it is called for aircraft, is still being used to the tune of about 225 million gallons annually by piston-engine aircraft, which release nearly 1,000 tons of lead dust annually over homes, crop fields and bodies of water.
Situated at the 20,000-or-so airports across America are roughly 159,000 piston-engine aircraft that still use leaded avgas. Though current avgas formulations contain less lead than they used to — the 100-octane low-lead (LL) variety currently in use contains less than half the amount contained in the 115LL variety commonly used after WWII — lead pollution from this fuel is still a major problem.’
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