Lead from gasoline discovered in Indian Ocean

Levels began to climb in the 1970s, peaking a decade ago - a timeline consistent with the region's pattern of leaded gasoline use. Since the 1970s, leaded gasoline has been slowly phased out worldwide, as studies have shown that lead can cause neurological and cardiovascular damage and degrade vehicles' catalytic converters. Today, 185 countries have stopped using leaded gasoline; six others, including Afghanistan, Iraq and North Korea, plan to phase it out in the next two years. But while leaded gasoline usage has decreased drastically in the last few decades, lead is still pervasive in the environment. Ed Boyle, a professor of ocean geochemistry in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, has been tracking lead and other trace elements in Earth's oceans for the past 30 years. Most recently, Boyle and his students in MIT's Trace Metal Group have analyzed water and coral samples from the Indian Ocean, using the coral to trace the history of anthropogenic lead over the last 50 years. The researchers have now discovered high concentrations of lead in the open ocean, as well as closer to population centers such as Singapore.