Victory for Clean Air in South Africa

After years of intensive efforts to educate communities and government representatives in South Africa about the dangers of sulfur and lead in petrol, the South African Cabinet announced a decision in May 2002 to phase out lead and reduce the sulfur content of diesel to 500 ppm by 2006. This is a 10-fold reduction in South Africa`s current limit on sulfur.

Most developed countries have already banned leaded gasoline and South Africa will join a growing list of developing countries to do so. Lead emissions can irreversibly impair cognitive development in children. Sulfur in diesel fuel contributes to harmful particulate matter emissions.

This is a tremendous victory, particularly for residents breathing the air in South Africa`s urban areas.

The Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF) took the lead in efforts to reduce the toxic emissions. E-LAW advocate Angela Andrews of the Legal Resources Centre was a key participant as the legal representative of EJNF.

Eugene Cairncross speaks at the Harare workshop with Angela Andrews. (Photo: Jennifer Gleason)

Angela worked with E-LAW U.S. Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik and Eugene Cairncross of Peninsula Technikon in South Africa to obtain the scientific information she needed to convince policy makers that reducing the content of lead and sulfur in fuel would not only improve the health of people living in urban areas, but would save money spent on illnesses, car repairs and other costs related to pollution.

Angela Andrews is helping other lawyers in Africa learn from the experience of advocates in South Africa. In June, Angela and Eugene attended a workshop in Harare co-hosted by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association and E-LAW U.S. The U.S. Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs sponsored the workshop. In Harare, Angela and Eugene helped lawyers from nine other African countries understand the crisis caused by high levels of lead and sulfur in petrol.

During the workshop, The Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe) reported that air pollution levels in Harare exceed World Health Organization standards and threaten Harare`s two million residents.

Armed with information provided by Angela and others, lawyers from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia and Malawi went home from the Harare workshop prepared to start investigating levels of lead and sulfur emitted in their urban areas. E-LAW U.S. is assisting these lawyers by compiling and disseminating information about fuel quality in South Africa and legal strategies around the world to improve urban air quality.