Industry chose profitable lead additives over safe unpatentable alternatives

Evidence

In the 1920s, when General Motors (GM) considered adding its patented chemical tetraethyl lead (TEL) to gasoline, it already had a cheap, ubiquitous, perfectly serviceable anti-knock13 compound for high-compression engines: ethanol, the same alcohol found in the beer, wine, and hard liquor that we drink. — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 257

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 257
• XREF: connects to: Lead poisoning costs the US billions of dollars and millions of IQ points yearly — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 37