A 'gift of God'?: The public health controversy over leaded gasoline during the 1920s.

Behavioral effects of lead: commonalities between experimental and epidemiologic data.

“…This concern was based on occurrences of mortality and severe neurologic and psychiatric signs in workers exposed in the process of the manufacture of this additive. A committee convened by the Surgeon General warned in 1926, It remains possible that if the use of leaded gasoline becomes widespread conditions may arise very different from those studied by us.... Longer experience may show that even such slight storage of lead as was observed in these studies may lead eventually in susceptible individuals to recognizable or to chronic degenerative diseases of a less obvious character ( 12).…”

“…The addition of lead as a gasoline additive engendered grave warnings by health professionals concerning the potential threat to the general health as a result of lead exposure (12). This concern was based on occurrences of mortality and severe neurologic and psychiatric signs in workers exposed in the process of the manufacture of this additive.…”

Selected Chemical and Physical Properties of Soils and Gut Physiological Processes that Influence Lead Bioavailability

“…The potential health hazard of Pb additives in gasoline was foreseen in the 1920s (Rosner and Markowitz, 1985;Lippmann 1990) and the actual accumulation was empirically observed in the USA (Angel et al, 1975;Angle and Mcintire, 1982;Mielke et al, 1983;Earickson andBillick, 1988), New Zealand (Shcllshear et al, 1975), Britain (Thornton, 1990), and Australia (Day, 1977;Fergusson et al, 19RO). Soil Pb concentration is highest in the biggest cities, especially inner-cities and least in small towns and rural locations (Mielke et al, 1984/85;Chaney and Mielke 1986).…”

Dissent and heresy in medicine: models, methods, and strategies

“…There is a considerable literature on suppression of challenging views in medicine and science illustrating these and other methods of marginalisation (Carter, 1993;Deyo, Psaty, Simon, Wagner & Omenn, 1997;Fagin & Lavelle, 1996;Hess, 2000;Insight Team of The Sunday Times, 1979;Martin, 1999;Moran, 1998;Moss, 1996;Rosner & Markowitz, 1985;Walker, 1993). In the cancer field, there have been government raids on practitioners of alternative cancer therapies; some such practitioners have had their medical licenses revoked; students with dissident views have had trouble gaining degrees; challengers have had promotions denied and appointments blocked; research funding has been denied or withdrawn; research papers have been denied publication; recognition and rewards have been unavailable; standard belief systems have not had a space for contrary views; and peers have ostracised dissidents.…”