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by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation is to ban the selling of leaded petrol from the final week of June, this year.

The CPC intends the banning of leaded petrol in a bid to arrest environmental pollution resulting from the noxious fumes of motor vehicles run on leaded petrol. This was in response to a request of the Government's 100-day programme.

The Sunday Observer learns that from July, the CPC will supply unleaded petrol instead of leaded petrol.

The CPC's action to do away with the use of leaded petrol in motor vehicles as it causes health hazards from the resultant noxious fumes which pollute the atmosphere. This was subject to severe criticism by environmentalists in the recent past. And it has been hailed as a step in the right direction with the motto of "keeping the cities free of polluted air." According to environmentalists, air pollution has become a major problem in the city of Colombo due to toxic emissions from motor vehicles. About 300,000 vehicles ply city roads every week. Besides this, mechanised factories also contribute for air pollution in the city and its suburbs.

Fumes of lead emission from motor vehicles at low levels can have an adverse effect, especially on children's health. Unleaded petrol was earlier available at 25 gasoline stations in Colombo and its suburbs. However, motorists preferred the leaded petrol as it was cheaper than the unleaded one.

Even gasoline dealers had a problem in selling the unleaded petrol due to the cost factor. At times, dealers had a stock of around 660,000 litres of unleaded petrol for a long period. However, this problem would not arise in future with the CPC deciding only to sell the unleaded variety.

A spokesmen for the Ceylon Motor Trader's Association (CMTA) said that it had campaigned vigorously for the abolition of leaded petrol and a sub-committee was appointed a few years back to look into the hazards caused by leaded petrol. Most countries now use lead free gasoline and low sulphur diesel, and even India had switched over to lead free gasoline some time back, he said.

Traffic policemen here were issued protective masks to guard against noxious fumes from motor vehicles, but they shunned wearing them as they looked awkward, police sources said.

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