Era of Leaded Gas Comes to an End In Most of Africa

Leaded gasoline until recently amounted to nearly 60 percent of the South African market. Consumers accustomed to using that fuel will now need to choose between unleaded gasoline or a new variety called lead-replacement petrol, which has additives needed by some older cars to prevent engine damage. The price for leaded, unleaded and lead-replacement gas is the same because of government regulation.

Leaders in sub-Saharan Africa agreed in 2001 to phase out leaded gasoline by the end of 2005. In just the past month, 16 countries have stopped refining or importing leaded gas, according to the U.N. Environment Program. As recently as 2002, Sudan was the only country in the region that had eliminated unleaded fuel.

The health effects of ingesting lead, which also can be contained in paint and contaminated water, include increased risk for heart attack and stroke. Children exposed to high levels often display irritability, stunted growth and decreased intelligence measurements. Before Egypt eliminated leaded gasoline, the average child in one study there had lost 4.25 IQ points, according to the United Nations.

Vehicles are the largest source of lead hazards in the environment. Emissions testing in March found that the average car in Nairobi, for example, produced 16 times the harmful emissions produced by the average new car in the United States.

That same research found that 70 percent of automobiles in Nairobi initially had catalytic converters to break down carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and other harmful emissions. But the systems were destroyed by leaded gasoline, which coats sensitive surfaces within the catalytic converters, rendering them useless.

"The most polluting fleet we've found anywhere in the world is in Nairobi," said James Lents, president of International Sustainable Systems Research Center in Diamond Bar, Calif., which did the study.

Lents, speaking from his home, said the situation is much the same in Africa's biggest cities, with broken emission control systems and high levels of air pollution.

In the move to eliminate leaded gasoline, the conversion of a refinery in Kenya to unleaded fuel in December was a milestone. So were the recent conversions of South Africa's six refineries, where $1.6 billion was spent to eliminate lead and lower the levels of harmful sulfur in diesel fuel.

South Africa is the major supplier of fuel to much of southern Africa. As recently as 20 years ago, testing in South Africa revealed some of the highest concentrations of lead levels ever measured in children.

Unleaded gasoline was introduced as an option in 1996, and the next round of nationwide tests six years later showed reduced levels of lead in children's blood. Levels fell by more than half in Cape Town and by 25 percent in Johannesburg, said Angela Mathee, a lead policy expert for the South African Medical Research Council.

Yet the council estimates that at least 600,000 children in South Africa still have lead levels higher than the international standard of 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood. Mathee predicted that levels would drop with the next nationwide tests, likely in 2007.

Despite the confusion created by the change, motorists said Saturday that they were happy to switch fuels if it means cleaner, safer air.

"They should have done it long ago," said Malcolm Purdy, 45, a firefighter, as he filled the tank of his 1999 Ford pickup with leaded gasoline for the last time.