July 11, 2026
Poison at the pump, profit on top
Leaded Gas Was a Known Poison the Day It Was Invented (2016)
They knew it was poison, sold it anyway, and the comments are absolutely furious
TLDR: Leaded gasoline was pushed into everyday life even though the companies involved knew lead was poisonous, and safer alternatives existed. Commenters are furious, joking darkly that this is a perfect example of profit beating public health — with some saying the fallout still shapes society today.
The history here is bleak enough on its own: car companies had a cleaner option to stop engine “knock,” but ethanol couldn’t be tightly controlled for profit, so they pushed tetraethyl lead instead — even though lead was already known to be dangerous. The most jaw-dropping detail, and the one commenters cannot stop yelling about, is that inventor Thomas Midgley Jr. was reportedly laid up with lead poisoning himself while leaded gas was being rolled out. As one commenter basically put it: the man was bedridden from the stuff and still went out to promote it. If that sounds like satire, the thread agrees: it feels too absurd to be real.
The community mood is a mix of rage, dark humor, and “how did we let this happen?” Several commenters connect it to a bigger pattern: cigarettes, asbestos, DDT, Teflon — products people say were known risks but kept around because money came first. One especially spicy take argues the effects of lead pollution may have shaped modern politics, claiming the “long tail” of leaded gasoline helps explain today’s chaos. Another points out the scandal isn’t even fully over, linking to reports that some small planes still use leaded fuel around airports.
And then came the ultimate internet flourish: Midgley being dubbed “Accidentally The Most Dangerous Man Who Ever Lived,” thanks to leaded gas, ozone-damaging CFCs, and even the grimly ironic machine tied to his own death. The comments didn’t just react to history — they turned it into a full-on villain origin story.
Key Points
- •In 1921, General Motors engineer Thomas Midgley Jr. proposed tetraethyl lead as a gasoline additive to reduce engine knocking.
- •The article says ethanol was an effective alternative anti-knock agent, but GM rejected it because it could not be patented or controlled.
- •TEL was already known to be highly toxic, including by major industry participants, before leaded gasoline entered the market.
- •Despite worker deaths and backlash in the 1920s, a 1926 public health report did not recommend banning leaded gasoline if manufacturing workers were protected.
- •The article says the health effects of leaded gasoline have persisted for decades, with children especially vulnerable to neurological and developmental harm from lead exposure.