The last country on Earth using leaded gasoline, Algeria, just finished its supply

Leaded gasoline’s century-long reign of destruction is officially over after Algeria, the last country on Earth using it, finished the last of its stockpile of leaded gasoline in July, according to the U.N. Environment Programme statement on Monday.

“The successful enforcement of the ban on leaded petrol is a huge milestone for global health and our environment,” Inger Andersen, UNEP’s executive director, said in a press statement.

The announcement concludes a 19-year campaign by the UN to end global consumption of leaded gasoline in cars and trucks, emissions from which were a major cause of public health problems such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, decreasing cognitive function, as well as air and water pollution.

Leaded gasoline was first invented in 1921 when researchers at General Motors discovered that adding a compound called tetraethyl lead to gasoline could improve engine performance.

At the time, it was well known that lead was a poison, and there were concerns over the risk to workers exposed to the dangerous additive. However, researchers working for automakers, oil companies and chemical giants assumed that the general public would not be harmed by low levels of exposure to leaded gasoline.

That turned out to be completely false. Children, in particular, are vulnerable to even minutes of exposure to leaded gasoline. Moreover, its use has been linked to lower IQs, cause various health problems and increase pollution.

It took decades for scientists to establish the damage that leaded gasoline was causing. By that point, virtually all the gasoline in the world had lead added to it.

In the U.S, the Environmental Protection Agency started an effort to phase out leaded gasoline in 1973. Starting in the 1970s, new vehicles were designed to run on unleaded gasoline, which was more expensive. In fact, the new cleaner generation of cars couldn’t run on leaded gasoline as it would destroy their catalytic converters.

By 1996, the U.S. fully banned leaded gasoline and most other high-income countries followed suit.

But in much of the developing world, leaded gasoline continued to be in widespread use at the turn of the millennium. Thus, in 2002, UNEP launched an effort to work with governments and industry to phase out leaded fuel everywhere.

A century after it was developed, 50 years after its dangers were established, and 19 years after UNEP started its campaign against it, leaded gasoline- at least as a legal fuel for street vehicle- is no more used in the globe.

The next goal of UNEP is to get more governments to enforce restrictions on sulfur levels in diesel fuel, which is a major contributor to asthma and other respiratory diseases. After that, the big dream will be shifting more of the countries to electric vehicles.

A difficult goal to reach indeed, however, Rob de Jong, the head of UNEP’s sustainable transport unit said, in a press statement, that the long battle to end the use of leaded gasoline has taught valuable lessons for the fight against climate change — including that it is possible to shift consumers and industries away from a profitable but damaging product.