[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 53 (Thursday, March 29, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E384-E385]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               INTRODUCTION OF THE NO LEAD IN THE AIR ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 29, 2018

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the No Lead in the Air 
Act. Although the House's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 
reauthorization bill includes my provision encouraging the use of 
unleaded aviation gasoline by January 1, 2023, that bill is still 
pending. Therefore, I introduce my bill to prohibit the use of lead in 
aircraft fuel by 2023. Lead exposure can have harmful effects on 
children as well as adults. Since 1980, the amount of

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lead in the air has decreased 89 percent, but while lead gas for 
automobiles has been banned since 1995, the piston-engine aircraft 
industry and airports that supply their fuel continue to use leaded 
aircraft fuel. Without a federal ban, they will continue to do so and 
put our communities and children at risk.
  Lead particles from airplane exhaust can fall widely during flight 
and there may be high concentrations of lead near airports. It is 
estimated that 16 million people live and three million children go to 
school within a half-mile of airports that sell leaded aircraft fuel 
called avgas. The health effects of lead in children include behavioral 
and learning problems, lower IQ, hyperactivity, slowed growth, hearing 
problems, and anemia. Lead exposure can cause premature births and 
spontaneous abortions in pregnant women, and adults can suffer from 
increased blood pressure, decreased kidney function, and reproductive 
problems.
  Seventy-five percent of piston-engined aircraft already operate 
safely with fuel that does not use lead. However, small airports 
continue to only sell leaded avgas for these piston-engine aircraft. 
But small airports will have to comply if the federal government bans 
the use of leaded fuel. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 
which implements the Clean Air Act, announced plans in 2010 to phase 
out leaded aviation fuel, but in the intervening six years we still 
have not seen a proposed rule. The FAA has created a task force of 
government and aviation industry stakeholders to study alternative 
fuels for piston-engine aircraft that would not use lead.
  With so much evidence of the harmful impacts of lead exposure, we can 
no longer put our communities at risk. My bill would give enough time 
for a full phase-out of lead in aircraft fuel--five years--by directing 
the FAA Administrator, in consultation with the EPA Administrator, to 
issue regulations prohibiting the use of leaded fuel in aircraft in 
U.S. airspace beginning January 1, 2023.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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