I am surprised they did not mention tetraethyl lead that use to be a gasoline additive eventually phased out in the mid 70s.

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graypegg a day ago | parent | next [-]

It's still present in a lot of avgas! (Fuel for airplanes) Obviously much less impactful than being surrounded by lead-spewing cars, we haven't totally stopped lead-spewing generally yet.

It would be interesting to know how much leaded avgas specifically affects people. Clearly most of it is emitted high up in the atmosphere but there's still a lot of idling and taxiing around airports...

	▲	tencentshill a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The smell gets almost unbearable inside the plane as it sits on the tarmac. Elevated lead levels are found in the blood of airfield employees. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/reports/pdfs/2012-0115-3186.pd... That was in 2012, I'm sure things have changed a bit in aviation since then.
	▲	musicale 21 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It can't be good that aircraft fly overhead every minute or two.

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1970-01-01 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

5th paragraph:

To make things even messier, heavy metals like lead and mercury can also be airborne and have been linked to harmful effects on the brain. For simplicity, we’ll talk about all of these under the same umbrella of air pollution, because they all contribute to negative health outcomes, including effects on the brain.