Claire C. Patterson

1600 Words7 Pages

How Dr. Claire C. Patterson Won against the tetraethyl lead industry Dr. Claire C. Patterson was a chemist that worked on the Manhattan Project. (20th century geologist page 1) his greatest contribution to all life on earth was the discovery of lead pollution from tetraethyl lead through the air, and later the discovery of the age of the earth. Dr. Patterson was considered a renegade scientist for fighting against Doctor Kehoe, a toxicologist, who supported the oil company. “Patterson was an expert in analyzing trace elements; Kehoe was a doctor who was in the pocket of the petroleum industry. Patterson saw rising levels of lead in the environment as a consequence of its uses a fuel additive; Kehoe was getting paid to sow doubt. Patterson …show more content…

Dr. Patterson began research to see how much lead he found in the environment was natural, and how much was created by people. He sampled snow from ancient ice in Greenland and Antarctica that existed hundreds or thousands of years before lead was dug up. The samples showed that there had been a huge increase in lead in the northern hemisphere when Greeks and Romans used lead for pipes and tools (Claire Patterson is dead page …show more content…

This utilization is not done objectively. It's done subjectively it is not just a mistake for the public health agencies to cooperate and collaborate with industries and investigating and deciding whether public health is endangered is a direct abrogation and violation of the duties and responsibilities of those public health organizations. In the past, these bodies have acted as though their known activities and those of lead industries in health matters were science, and they could be considered objectively in that sense” )“ (Patterson and Kehoe, page