N.Z. ‘out of step’ in petrol lead content

Press, 30 May 1981, Page 20

N.Z. ‘out of step’ in petrol lead content

PA Wellington The British Government’s decision to cut the lead content of petrol has put New Zealand even further out of step with world trends, says a Friends of the Earth spokesman. Mr J. Horrocks, j By 1985 the lead content of British petrol would have dropped from .4 grams a litre to .15 grams, he said. The Australian Government had decided that leadfree petrol must be available at all retail outlets by 1985. But the Marsden Point refinery’s new hydrocracking process was expected to reduce lead levels from only .840 grams a litre to .45 grams and this clearly was not enough. “The British Government recognises that as much as 40 per cent of the lead that children absorb comes from the air,” he said. "There is growing evidence that the lead levels to which we are already exposed are having dangerous psychological effects on behaviour and intelligence.” Even if the British requirements went no further New Zealand should look at leadfree petrol, he said. Arguments about the cost of introducing lead-free petrol ignored the fact that it allowed fuel economy through better engine tuning. The savings could offset the refinery cost of doing without the lead, which was added to boost the petrol octane rating. The reduction t 0.45 grams was costed at $22.4 million in 1978 for capital equipment, plus an extra $20.2 million annually for extra oil imports.

Reducing lead content from .84 to .15 grams required capital spending of $6B million when costed in 1978, plus extra annual oil imports worth $45.2 million.

In Wellington, a spokesman for the Ministry of Energy said that reducing lead content in petrol from 0.84 kg before 1984 was considered impractical. A spokesman for the Department of Health said that lead discharges into the British environments would still be higher than New Zealand despite the planned 0.15 kg level. ?

About 11,000 tonnes of lead were discharged annually in Britain, compared with about .1300 tonnes in New Zealand. Studies in Auckland and Christchurch in 1978 had recorded lead levels in the air of up to 2.5 micrograms per cubic metre of air. Suburban levels of between 0.2 micrograms and one microgram were recorded, compared with standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States of 1.5 micrograms.

"But the American standards relate to where people spend the majority of their time.” the spokesman said. He said people were believed to ingest about 10 per cent of lead levels in their blood from the atmosphere. The rest came from water and foodstuffs.

Canned foods were estimated to contribute about 20 to 30 per cent of lead levels.

"Petrol is the biggest controllable source of lead released into the environment,” the spokesman said.

"But we are not sure what contribution it makes to blood levels, or how it contributes to the food chain.”