Ethyl-leaded gasoline: how a classic occupational disease became an international public health disaster.

The author describes the controversy about the use of tetraethyl lead (TEL) as a gasoline additive. Early warnings were ignored by industry, and as leaded gasoline became more profitable, scientists willing to support industry were financed as guardians of the scientific criteria for lead's health impacts. Controversy erupted in 1924 after refinery accidents left workers dying from violent insanity.