Both the E.P.A. and the Environmental Defense Fund want the petroleum industry to label pumps that use gasoline containing M.M.T. Ethyl's assertions that M.M.T. is safe do not withstand scientific scrutiny. Laboratory studies show that manganese crosses the placenta and retards growth in fetal rodents. When inserted into the brain cells of rats, it disturbs the normal functioning of the cells. Ethyl claims that M.M.T. has been used safely in Canada for 19 years. But no systematic studies of manganese in humans have been done in Canada or elsewhere.
Children are more vulnerable than adults to most neurotoxins.
They live and play close to the ground, where fumes from tailpipes settle. The nerve cells in young brains continually change, laying down connections and pruning back others. The Ethyl Corporation has a history of indifference to public health. In 1922, it gave us tetraethyl lead, which improved automobile engine performance when added to gasoline. Others were left permanently psychotic.