I recently watched a viral Youtube video by science communicator Veritasium titled The Man Who Accidentally Killed the Most People in History. The excellent video documents the scientific accomplishments and legacy of Thomas Midgley Jr.
Thomas Midgley Jr. was a mechanical engineer, inventor, and chemist born on May 18th, 1889 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Over the course of his lifetime, Midgley Jr. had more than one hundred patents to his name. Unfortunately, his legacy remains controversial, even to this day. Two inventions, in particular, had "more impact on the environment than any other single organism in Earth’s history," according to the environmental historian J. R. McNeill. Pioneering lead-based additives in gasoline and synthesising the first CFC (dichlorodifluoromethane, also known as Freon) are amongst his most iconic achievements, both of which resulted in disastrous long-term effects on public health and the environment. These two revolutionary inventions remain heavily restricted or entirely banned since our understanding of them has evolved over the past few decades for many reasons.
Thomas Midgley Jr., during his work as a researcher for General Motors in 1921, experimented with using tetraethyl lead (TEL) as an additive to gasoline. His job at GM was to look into increasing fuel efficiency and reducing the effects of engine knock. Although lead was well-known for being poisonous (Midgley himself fell ill to lead poisoning during his work), its continued use led to many incidents involving exposure to the toxic chemical. One example includes an incident when five workers at a TEL plant in New Jersey died, with thirty-five more hospitalised. When this occurred in 1924, the story even made it to the front page of the New York Times.
The lead became less popular as an additive during the 1970s, following the tireless efforts of scientist Clair Patterson, plus a strengthened environmentalist movement that helped establish the Environmental Protection Agency. It had almost completely disappeared from the market by 1986. Many people believe that the Public Relations team of General Motors deliberately misled the public to suppress fear when naming and promoting a joint company between themselves, Du Pont, and Standard Oil of New Jersey. Midgley Jr. himself spent much time suffering from lead poisoning throughout his life. He was well-known for public talks to demonstrate the safety of these products, often involving stunts that included inhaling them or pouring lead-contaminated samples onto his skin.
The second infamous invention was that of Freon, the first CFC. General Motors hired Midgley to find alternative refrigerants to the harmful products already in use after his successful work involving lead. Within only three days, freon seemed to be the solution to this problem. CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) are now understood to cause ozone depletion. In 1930, after Freon use became widespread, its damaging effects on the atmosphere were unknown. At the time, it was considered a far safer alternative to sulphur dioxide, ammonia, and methyl chloride. Freon seemed perfect; it was non-toxic, non-flammable, non-corrosive, and safe to breathe. Over the next fifty years, CFCs were in millions of homes globally.
Research detected CFCs in the atmosphere in 1973, and eleven years later, they discovered the consequent ozone hole over Antarctica formed by extensive use of these compounds. This hole will not fully recover until 2050 since CFCs remain in the stratosphere for many years after ceasing to be produced. Following the Montreal Protocol in 1987, their use became phased out. By 2005, their global production had ceased entirely (although a black market was created and their illegal use continued).
Despite the damaging impacts of some of his now-infamous contributions to science, Thomas Midgley Jr. made many contributions to help progress our understanding of chemistry. His research on the properties of rubber and vulcanization (the addition of certain compounds to polymers to increase durability). He wrote 19 peer-reviewed papers on this subject alone. Additionally, Midgley Jr. pioneered methods used to extract bromine contaminants from water.
He will almost certainly remain a controversial figure in science for his contributions, especially considering how he was complicit in selling and managing his potentially lethal lead-based products while fully aware of their repercussions. The side effects of his originally well-intended invention should have been researched more in-depth before being widely distributed. Profits ultimately outweighed the devastating impact of the substance. Many people will argue that his death at the hands of his own creation in 1944 epitomises poetic justice. After contracting polio and being unable to walk, he created a rope and pulley system to help make him more mobile later in his life. However, the device killed him when he became tangled up one morning. The full impact of his work is impossible to quantify. The sheer scale of lead-related illnesses globally continues to be researched. We do know that the consequences have been unprecedented and lethal to many.
More information about the impacts of lead on children, and their mental development, can be found in this UNICEF report.
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