introduced into Japan in the late sixties, and into the US in the mid seventies in order to enable the use of catalytic converters and thus mitigate photochemical pollution. However, by 1979, in the face of growing evidence of the harmful effects of lead on children's behaviour, neuro-cognitive development and IQ, the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) commissioned a report under the Chairmanship of Professor Lawther. The subsequent report, Lead and Health recommended that the lead content of petrol should be reduced from 0.4 to 0.15g/L, but there was no recommendation to introduce lead-free petrol. Nor was there any recommendation to lower the lead level deemed safe from 35 microgrammes per decilitre of blood. In 1980 the Conservation Society Pollution Working Party published a response to the Lawther report “Lead or Health” co-authored by Professor Derek Bryce-Smith PhD, DSc, C Chem, FRSC, Professor of Organic Chemistry at Reading University, and Dr Robert Stephens, PhD, DSc, C Chem, FRSC, Reader in Organic Chemistry at the University of Birmingham, but HMG resisted their call for unleaded petrol under pressure from both the motor manufacturers and the petroleum industry. Objectives The first edition of CLEAR's newspaper listed the campaign's objectives: To urge that the fixed limit of 0.15 grams per litre for lead in petrol should be introduced earlier than the official date of 1985 and be for existing cars only. To demand that as soon as possible, and in any event by 1985, all new cars sold in the UK market be required to run on lead-free petrol. To demand that as soon as possible, and in any event by early 1985, all petrol stations be required to have lead-free petrol available for sale to the public. To urge that taxation on the sale of petrol should be imposed to create a price advantage to motorists purchasing lead-free petrol. To maintain surveillance on the use of lead generally and to encourage enforcement of measures necessary to reduce lead pollution wherever it occurs. International conference In 1982 the CLEAR Charitable Trust organized an international conference on the biological effects of low-level lead exposure, and the subsequent proceedings, Lead versus Health, were co-edited by Russell-Jones and Michael Rutter FRS, Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry. A key chapter (8), “The contribution of lead in petrol to human lead intake” was co-authored by Russell-Jones and Dr Bob Stephens, and concluded