But Bush has not cracked down on other pollution sources, allowing oil and chemical companies to create their own voluntary emissions reduction plans instead - plans which environmentalists have attacked as far too lax. Major oil companies knew for 50 years that leaded gasoline was toxic to people and the environment, but continued to market it anyway. And what s truly outrageous, leaded gasoline continues to be sold around the world. Almost 93 percent of all gasoline sold today in Africa contains lead. The World Health Organization has found that all urban children in developing countries under age two, and more than 80 percent of those between ages three and five have levels of lead in their blood exceeding international health standards.
Leaded gasoline remains the most widespread source of lead exposure.
A Maine Superior Court judge has ruled that MTBE manufacturers and two national trade groups are not liable for groundwater contamination caused by the controversial gasoline additive. Five Maine residents had filed a class action suit against Arco Chemical Co., Atlantic Richfield Co., Lyondell Chemical Co., the American Petroleum Institute and the Oxygenated Fuels Association, seeking to force the makers and promoters of MTBE to test all the wells in Maine for MTBE and pay to cleanup any contamination found. Environmental groups fear the decision could set a precedent, making it more difficult for other citizen suits to make oil companies responsible for MTBE cleanup costs. MTBE is an oxygenate added to gasoline to make it burn more cleanly. The chemical has now been found in drinking water sources across the nation, leading to public health and environmental concerns.