Letters: August 2025

Benzene’s links to dyes and petrol

I loved the benzene issue.

I am old enough to remember UK National Benzole petrol stations. Coal tar benzole was largely a mixture of benzene and toluene which had a far higher antiknock (octane number) rating than petroleum gasoline, so a 50/50 mixture gave a super fuel. The proportion was reduced as gasoline improved, but it was taken out because concerns about the health effects of aromatics in about 1960, the antiknock being made up by tetraethyl lead, whose cumulative poisoning had been suppressed by the industry.