londons_explorer t1_j3z5oe6 wrote on January 12, 2023 at 1:37 AM

Reply to comment by Hrmbee in Leaded aviation gasoline exposure risk and child blood lead levels by Hrmbee

> Industry convenience should not trump public health and yet it occurs on a regular basis.

The regulatory body for making this decision is the FAA. The FAA banning leaded fuels is like NASA banning rockets or the Treasury banning dollars.

The real question is why have we the people set the system up so that the regulatory body making this decision doesn't have the people's best interests in mind?

notanaardvark t1_j3zu1gj wrote on January 12, 2023 at 4:39 AM

The FAA did finally approve unleaded fuel for all piston aircraft this past year. It will probably take a minute to get all the refueling infrastructure switched over but it's finally happening. They haven't outright banned 100LL (the current leaded fuel) but lots of pilots have been wanting the FAA to approve unleaded fuel forever. Hopefully the switch comes sooner rather than later.

The other regulatory piece of this is that if we knew for so long that leaded fuels caused health problems, why was the land so close to airports zoned for residential use (or schools)? A huge amount of the time, the airport was built away from everything in the 40s or 50s (or earlier), and then much later people started building houses next to them, then complaining about the noise and the potential health risks, and in some cases getting the airports shut down. Case in point, Santa Monica airport. Opened in the 20s, one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country, and now set to shut down later this decade.