MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether) is used in California Reformulated Gasoline as an oxygenate and octane booster. MTBE is an ether. All ethers are poisonous and phychoactive like alcohol, only much more dangerous.
The California Air Resources Board, while not requiring MTBE to be in the gas, has written regulations which have this effect.
The benefits ascribed to MTBE in gasoline are untrue. The use of oxygenates in gasoline merely reduce the heat content per gallon. This makes a car with a carburetter run leaner but has no effect on a modern car with a computer. The gas mileage of newer cars will be slightly worsened as they will burn a little more fuel to get the heat they need to run.
MTBE is a very dangerous chemical which, unlike old fashioned gasoline, dissolves in water so it spreads rapidly through the water system every time there is a gasoline leak or spill. Half the wells in Santa Monica are shut down. Eliminating MTBE from water costs four times as much as the water itself, so the introduction of MTBE into our environment in million ton quantities appears to be a stupid and very expensive error.
MTBE causes cancer in lab animals. It appears that MTBE may cause asthma, the studies being performed seem to indicate this. People who drink MTBE contaminated water seem to be coming down with health problems.
The risks from MTBE far outweigh any possible benefits.
Since MTBE does not exist in nature, natural organisms do not seem to have a taste for it. Believe it or not, natural organisms clean up oil spills and gasoline, it's called Boiremediation.
We need to stop using MTBE immediately throughout the world. It is a dangerous nasty chemical whose sole benefit seems to be to oil company profits. There is nothing so profitable as adding water to natural gas and tertiary butylene, a refinery waste gas, and selling it as gasoline.
Stop using MTBE in our gas
right now.
Tel (510) 522-0280 3335 Fernside Blvd.
Fax (510) 522-2972 Alameda, CA 94501