Highly leaded fuel still in use: Study

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Cars in three out of 10 major cities surveyed in the country are still being supplied with leaded gasoline, which posses a threat to people's health and can stunt mental development, a report said.

A report on fuel monitoring in 10 major cities in the country -- Bandung, Batam, Denpasar, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Medan, Makassar, Palembang, Surabaya and Semarang -- shows that the supply of gasoline in Palembang, Makasar and Medan contains high levels of lead.

Lead is a substance that can cause respiratory problems, hypertension and heart attacks. It can also stunt children's intellectual development.

"The maximum threshold of lead in gasoline should be 0.013 gram per liter (g/L). But based on the monitoring results, most of the gasoline being supplied in Indonesia, has a level that exceeds the threshold," said Ahmad Safrudin, chairman of the Joint Committee for the Leaded Gasoline Phase-out (KPBB) program at a public presentation of the report results on Tuesday.

The report of the monitoring, which took samples of fuel from 45 gasoline stations in the 10 cities, showed that gasoline samples taken in Palembang contained 0.58 g/L of lead, Makassar (0.272 g/L) and Medan (0.213 gr/L).

It also shows that the content of sulfur in diesel fuel sold in the 10 cities reached more than 500 parts per million (ppm), the acceptable maximum limit.

"It means that people are still using low quality fuel, which posses a threat to air quality," said Ahmad.

State Minister of the Environment Rachmat Witoelar said he was ashamed that Indonesia had not been able to scrap the production of leaded gasoline, while 80 percent of countries in the world were already using lead-free gasoline.

"I'm ashamed to say that we keep on failing to meet the deadline to scrap leaded gasoline. Therefore, I'm determined to set the final deadline...the country should be free of leaded gasoline by early next year," he said.

The phasing out of leaded gasoline was first ordered by then president Soeharto in 1996, setting 1999 as the deadline.

However, due to the financial crisis in 1997, the government moved the deadline to 2003.

Then, arguing that there were problems in modifying the Cilacap and Balongan oil refineries that would supply unleaded fuel for the whole nation, the government again moved the deadline to January 2005.

Rachmat said that the delay was caused by a lack of funds to finance the process of producing unleaded gasoline.

A deputy of the state minister of the environment, Ridwan D. Tamin, said that the government needed to invest Rp 2 trillion (over $199 million) per month to supply 11 million kilo liters of unleaded gasoline for the whole country.

Ahmad said that the lack of funds should not be an excuse for the government's failure to fulfill its promise to ensure that its people breathe clean air.

"A study by the Asian Development Bank in 1998 said that air pollution has cost the people US$180 million in health costs. It is predicted to cost $400 million in 2015," he said.