Doing away with leaded gasoline

Doing away with leaded gasoline

From Media Indonesia

We agree that leaded gasoline must be immediately done away with both because it may lower the I.Q. level of a child and also because its continued presence will lead to the concentration of lead reaching 1.7 - 3.5 microgram per cubic meter in the year 2000. At this level lead will poison a fetus as it accumulates in the bones and later gets into blood circulation. Besides, it may also cause an adult's blood pressure to rise, a condition increasing the risk of a cardiac arrest. Continued use of leaded gasoline, therefore, does harm to the supply of clean air in Jakarta and other major cities across the country. Nevertheless, we cannot agree to the abolition of leaded gasoline if this abolition comes about at the urging of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as set forth in the Letter of Intent. The abolition of leaded gasoline must be based on our own awareness of the need for a clean and pollution-free environment.

While the minister of environmental affairs has high optimism that leaded gasoline will be out of use in Jakarta in 2001 and across Java island in 2002 and finally throughout the archipelago in 2003, it is unfortunate that a substitute unleaded fuel which the community, particularly the middle to lower social classes, can afford to buy, is yet to be introduced. It is said that leaded gasoline will be replaced by unleaded gasoline, a fuel which will be produced on a large scale by state-owned oil company Pertamina as a national program. In this respect, however, the economic impact of this program, especially when it is concerned with the people of the middle to lower social classes, must be well taken into account. We cannot say that the people in the category of the middle to lower social classes must accept this national program with all its consequences.

It must be borne in mind that the use of a fuel is one of the determinants in economic calculations. If this national program on unleaded gasoline eventually only increases the economic burden of the community, community members may be led to think that unleaded gasoline will only mean greater sufferings to the people in the middle to lower social classes. This program will be successful only if the substitute for leaded gasoline will not be economically burdensome to the community.

We are therefore calling on the minister of environmental affairs to abolish leaded gasoline and replace it with a fuel which will not be economically burdensome to the community. Do not get rid of a problem only to bring about a new one.

H. MAHATMA GANDHI

Executive Director of

Alliance for Community with Care for the Environment