Antarctica

Antarctica

Ice cores from Antarctica show an increase in lead pollution beginning in 1889. Sharp dips show the Great Depression (1932) and the end of World War II (1948). Isotopic analyses indicate that the primary lead source from 1889 through the 1950s was the Broken Hill mine in Australia, and that sources in later years were tetra-ethyl lead from leaded gasoline. Decreases beginning in the 1990s reflect decreased use of lead in gasoline in the Southern Hemisphere. Lead was totally eliminated from gasoline in the largest and southernmost countries of the Southern Hemisphere beginning in the 1990s: New Zealand (1996), Brazil (1997), Argentina (1998), Chile (2001), Australia (2002), and South Africa (2006).