TOXIC LEAD

Feb 20, 2026

I’m reading American Poison: A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice by Daniel Stone. It tells the story of the fight against lead poisoning, led in the early 20th century by Alice Hamilton, a University of Michigan graduate and a pioneer in occupational medicine.

In the 1920s, tetraethyl lead — marketed as “ethyl” gasoline (Boomers said, “Fill ’er up with ethyl!”) — was hailed as a miracle additive that allowed internal combustion engines to run more smoothly. The short-term effects on the public seemed minimal. Over time, though, lead exposure crippled and killed people, and at production facilities it drove some workers mad before they died. Industry resisted regulation, but researchers and activists eventually pushed leaded gasoline out of widespread use.

Hamilton wrote two books on toxicology, as well as her autobiography, Exploring the Dangerous Trades, published in 1943.

Find American Poison here.