Stop providing leaded gasoline at Colorado’s regional airports
[ad_1]
Colorado’s airports must transition quickly to offering only unleaded gas to help protect children living nearby from the devastating effects of lead poisoning.
Lead is particularly harmful to infants and children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even low levels of lead exposure can damage a child’s brain and nervous system as it develops, slow growth and development, and cause hearing and speech problems.
The Denver Post’s John Aguilar reported Sunday that a recent Colorado State University study that found dangerously elevated lead levels in the blood of children living within a half mile of regional airports in California prompted Santa Clara County to ban the sale of leaded gasoline.
The county likely acted so quickly because the study, conducted by CSU economics professor Sammy Zahran and his team at Mountain Data Group, found the lead levels in the blood of 13,000 children near Reid-Hillview Airport were as bad as what children suffered in Flint, Mich.
Leaded gasoline for cars was banned long ago. Why in 2023, when an alternative lead-free aviation fuel has been invented, would we allow airplanes to rain lead down on homes, schools, playgrounds, and businesses?
Jet engines do not use leaded gasoline, and instead use kerosene-based fuel, making larger airports like DIA, less susceptible to lead contamination. Typically leaded aviation gasoline is used in smaller piston-engine aircraft owned by small businesses, flight schools, and individuals. The Federal Aviation Administration has set a goal of having all aircraft use lead-free aviation fuels by 2030.
Coloradans can’t tolerate seven more years of this harmful pollution.
[ad_2]
Source link