Phasing Out Lead from Gasoline in Central and Eastern Europe Health Issues, Feasibility, and Policies

Annotation Implementing the Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe As a result of increasing awareness of the dangers of lead to human health and measures to tackle urban air pollution, the use of lead additives in gasoline has been declining rapidly worldwide since the 1970s. A number of countries have completely eliminated the use of lead additives in gasoline, but in Central and Eastern Europe, lead still ranks as one of the most serious and widespread environmental hazards--yet one that is relatively inexpensive to remedy. At a major international conference on the environment held in Switzerland in 1993, fifty countries endorsed the Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe, which addressed environmental priority issues such as lead exposure. Phasing out Lead from Gasoline in Central and Eastern Europe summarizes the findings of case studies on lead phase-out as a first-step study designed to assist in the implementation of the Environmental Action Programme. It examines major sources and levels of lead exposure in the region, looks at the costs of phasing out leaded gasoline, describes progress in reducing lead exposure over the past 5-8 years, identifies human health improvements, and draws on lessons of experience from countries in the region. One of the case studies, for example, describes in detail the complete phase-out of leaded gasoline in the Slovak Republic. Although it recognizes the importance of dealing with all significant sources of lead exposure, the study focuses on lead exposure from the exhaust of vehicles using leaded gasoline.