The Lead Industries Association (LIA) was a trade organization that in 1925 made it possible for tetraethyllead to be an additive of commercial gasoline [1] and later incorporated in 1928 to promote the interests of the lead industry. [2] [3] The National Lead Institute was a predecessor of the Lead Industries Association. [4] [5] [6] The association lobbied to lift bans on, and promote the use of, lead pipes. [7] The association also promoted lead-based paints, which became the subject of a poisoning lawsuit filed against paint manufacturers. [8] In 1958, the LIA and the American Zinc Institute founded an organization with a similar mission that outlasted the LIA, the International Lead Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO). [9] In 2002, the Lead Industries Association of Sparta, NJ, went bankrupt and defunct citing that they were unable to get insurance to cover the litigation against them. [10] [11] [12]
Richard Schweiker's 1972 testimony in the US Congressional record includes a transcript of a segment that aired January 28, 1972, on the NBC Chronolog program concerning lead poisoning. [13] The ILZRO wrote a memo refuting information presented in that show. [14]
The LIA unsuccessfully attempted to make Ronald G. Stevens of Long Island Film Studios remove statements about lead in gasoline and from industrial pollution affecting children regardless of socioeconomic status from a 10-minute film titled Lead Poisoning, The Hidden Epidemic that won a 1972 Silver Medal from the New York Film Festival. [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22]
Junk science is spurious or fraudulent scientific data, research, or analysis. The concept is often invoked in political and legal contexts where facts and scientific results have a great amount of weight in making a determination. It usually conveys a pejorative connotation that the research has been untowardly driven by political, ideological, financial, or otherwise unscientific motives.
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Tetraethyllead (commonly styled tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula Pb(C2H5)4. It was widely used as a fuel additive for much of the 20th century, first being mixed with gasoline beginning in the 1920s. This "leaded gasoline" had an increased octane rating that allowed engine compression to be raised substantially and in turn increased vehicle performance and fuel economy. TEL was first synthesised by German chemist Carl Jacob Löwig in 1853. American chemical engineer Thomas Midgley Jr., who was working for the U.S. corporation General Motors, was the first to discover its effectiveness as an antiknock agent in 1921, after spending several years attempting to find an additive that was both highly effective and inexpensive.
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LIA's greatest triumph was in 1925, when it overrode opposition to the introduction of tetraethyl lead as a gasoline additive
Although the Lead Industries Association (LIA), which Smith directs, was not itself involved in these and other activities, its predecessor, the National Lead Institute, was active in obscuring the hazards of lead.
... National Lead Institute ... Apparently a predecessor of the Lead Industries Association.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)My interest in this matter was stimulated further by a recent NBC television program, Chronolog," which did a special report on the hazards of lead to humans from these products.
We went over the transcript page by page and I want to point out to you, just in general, the points which were brought up in our discussions and also the points you may want to use in backing up any argument with NBC.
1. strike through lead attacks black.. .white... rich... poor and replace with the poor whether black or white; 2. strike through Lead fallout from industrial waste and auto exhausts; 3. strike through From polluted air and soil where exhaust fumes and industrial wastes have settled and replace with From their food and from the air but these are relatively unimportant compared to old paint
The narration change that Dr.'s Harrison and Cole have agreed to, will require re-writing paragraph six in the present narration to eliminate the reference made to lead content in the auto exhausts that your Association feels is misleading
This is an excellent movie and with the proposed change in Paragraph 6—which will eliminate the reference to lead in automotive exhausts-—we think this film will find wide acceptance in the health field.
I regret that you cannot see your way clear to make the changes we suggested in your movie, "Lead Poisoning, The Hidden Epidemic."
One of the overriding reasons we had to decline your offer was due to the objections of several National Health Organizations that had endorsed the film in its present version. ... One further comment regarding the film an Lead Poisoning--The Hidden Epidemic, we have just been awarded the New York International Film Festival's 1972 Silver Medal.
We were most surprised that you, with the advice of Dr. Dorothy Harrison would not accept our criticisms of the film and refused to make alterations which would have made the film such more effective. ... You have our congratulations for winning the 1972 Silver Medal, awarded from the New York International Film Festival.
About six Months ago, the Association was asked to review this film, which we did. In the main it was well done although it does contain one brief, misleading segment that attempts to establish a relationship between lead in the air due to automotive gasoline antiknocks and childhood lead poisoning.
Lead Poisoning: The Hidden Epidemic - 10 min color