Ethics and Leaded Gas essays

Ethics and Leaded Gas essays This is a comparative study based on articles written in the New York Times and The Nation regarding the manufacture of Monokote by the W. R. Grace Corporation and tetraethyl lead (TEL) by the Ethyl Corporation. Although dissimilar products, they used similar business strategies to promote their products use. While the economic reasons for the production of their products satisfied a need and provided substantial profit, each company and their supporting industries implemented business strategies which put the public health at risk. One business strategy, named the Kehoe Rule, was successfully applied to preserve the self-interests of these two U. S. companies. Consequently, the publics health has been kept at risk for the Kehoe Rule remains a viable business strategy today. More importantly, our expanding world economy magnifies the issues concerning public health. As the automotive industry developed in the early 1900s several events took place creating leaded gasoline. Initially alcohol was the fuel of choice. It was known to produce high engine compression (power) with the benefits of being a renewable resource, non-toxic, and emitting no smoke or disagreeable odors. However, in the formative years of the automotive industry several industrial leaders (Standard Oil of New Jersey, Du Pont and General Motors) banded together and successfully established gasoline as the fuel of choice. New inventions were introduced as the industry expanded including the electric self-starter invented in 1911 and first used in General Motors Cadillac. A knock developed in the Cadillacs gasoline-fueled engine and the electric self-starter was blamed. Research uncovered the cause of this knock to be the premature combustion of the fuel/air mixture.(7) Eliminating the knock by increasing gasoline&...