The EPA has joined those who believe leaded aviation fuel, used mostly by small airplanes, is a danger to public health.
The agency made such an official declaration this week and it opened the door for the EPA to take regulatory action, a move that would affect more than 800 airports in Oklahoma.
“The science is clear: exposure to lead can cause irreversible and life-long health effects in children,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a press statement.
Commercial planes don’t run on leaded fuel and it is usually small piston-engine planes that use it—planes that carry between two and 10 passengers. If the EPA were to formally ban the leaded fuel, it could possibly affect about 172,000 such airplanes in the country.
EPA Administrator Regan said that a new finding that lead in aviation emissions may be expected to endanger public health allows the Biden administration to “move forward in the process to propose new standards to protect all communities from the serious threat of lead pollution from aircraft.”
As OK Energy Today reported earlier, the city of Bloomfield, Colorado recently stopped the use of leaded aviation fuel at its Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport. The move came after residents claimed the use of the leaded fuel was a health threat to them.
The impact of such a possible EPA ban of the leaded aviation fuel could apply to airports throughout Oklahoma. There are nearly 90 municipal airports but the total number of airports in the state is closer to 800.
Source: The Hill