Clean Fuels & Health Effects Forum Was a Call to Action

The recent National Clean Fuels Technology & Health Effects Leadership Forum, co-sponsored by EESI, reminded us that it’s not just the climate that suffers from taxpayer-subsidized production and consumption of gasoline and its aromatics, but human health, as well.   

The reality of the situation

Climate change, exacerbated by fossil fuel consumption, has created the world’s most significant threat to children’s health and future, and is a major

contributor to global inequality and environmental injustice. Reducing fossil fuel consumption would significantly reduce cases of preterm or low birth weight children, as well as several other cognitive and behavioral disorders, mental health problems, asthma, respiratory problems, and other diseases. 

Unfortunately, fossil fuels, and notably fossil-fueled vehicles, aren’t going away any time soon. Even if 100 percent of new vehicles sold today were electric (and they are not), it would take 20 to 25 years to eliminate gasoline-fueled vehicles. Only a few countries around the world plan to ban new fossil-fuel vehicle sales, and the earliest effective ban date for any country, 2030, means that the negative human and environmental health impacts of burning fossil fuels in transportation will be present for quite some time. But we can act now to begin to lessen those negative impacts as we work towards decarbonizing our world.

Forum speaker Bill Kovarik explained how gasoline became our fuel of choice. Through most of the nineteenth century, gasoline was a useless byproduct of kerosene, a major source of lighting fuel. Millions of gallons of gasoline were dumped into waterways before John D. Rockefeller and others developed a use for it in motor vehicles. But, as an EESI fact sheet explains, in order for gasoline-powered engines to function efficiently, octanes must be added. Even though ethanol, a proven plant-based octane source, was and is less harmful, petroleum-based octanes, known as aromatics, have prevailed. The 1973 oil embargo renewed interest in fossil fuel alternatives and renewable fuels such as ethanol. In 1988, the Alternative Motor Fuels Act established incentives for alternative-fuel vehicles, but despite later mandates to increase the volume of renewable fuels, progress has been limited and negative health impacts continue. 

EESI has been working to address this problem since 2006, when the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment Program released its findings at an EESI briefing. The assessment discovered the widespread presence of the aromatic methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in groundwater and drinking-water supplies due to its extensive use in gasoline after tetraethyl lead (TEL), until then the preferred source of octane, was banned in 1996 by the Environmental Protection Agency because of lead’s high toxicity to human health.  

MTBE has generally been phased out of gasoline in states where it is not formally banned. However, its replacement, the petroleum-based aromatic additives, benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene, and xylene (a hydrocarbon mixture known as the BTEX complex), are also a serious threat to the environment and public health. Combusting BTEX releases ultra-fine particulates (UFP) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are carcinogenic and mutagenic even at low levels. Simply put, as EESI’s Director Emerita Carol Werner said, “Aromatics in gasoline are the new lead.” 

Time to take action

Until the adoption of electric vehicles can make a significant difference, the most practical ways to reduce these negative health impacts include increasing engine efficiency to consume less gasoline per mile, blending gasoline with non-fossil fuel replacements to reduce overall consumption, and using less-toxic octane-boosters, like ethanol. 

The United States can learn from other countries that have made reducing gasoline and its aromatic consumption a priority.  Gasoline is commonly sold in the form of E10, a 10 percent ethanol, 90 percent gasoline blend, in the United States. In Brazil, E20 and E25 have been in use for decades—since the late 1970s—and flex fuel vehicles that can run on any type of gasoline-ethanol blend (including 100 percent ethanol) now dominate the market.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has suggested that next-generation biofuel crops, combined with significantly improved energy efficiency and better urban planning, could help eliminate the demand for gasoline in the United States by 2050. Nothing less than that will be sufficient to curb climate change.

Author: Jonathan Herz

Source:

Pollution from Fossil-Fuel Combustion is the Leading Environmental Threat to Global Pediatric Health and Equity: Solutions Exist, Frederica Perera, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2018 Jan; 15(1): 16. Published online 2017 Dec 23. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15010016 PMCID: PMC5800116