Sir Keir Starmer’s government has been urged to follow the US and EU in banning aviation fuel containing lead that is used by small planes across the UK.
MPs and researchers told the Financial Times that ministers should act to phase out production and use of tetraethyl lead (TEL), a compound in aviation gasoline that powers thousands of light, piston-engine aircraft.
Leaded petrol was banned in 1999 because of its effect on human health by the then Labour government, but TEL continues to be made in Britain.
Lead is a toxic metal that impairs the mental development of children and has a devastating impact on almost every organ in the human body. Any level of exposure is capable of having a harmful effect, according to the World Health Organization.
The UK is the only country in the world where TEL is still made. Most advanced economies had banned production of the compound by the early 2000s.
The EU has pledged to ban imports of TEL as of May 1 2025, while in the US the Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions initiative, a public-private partnership between the government, the oil industry and the aviation sector, has a target of 2030 for the complete phaseout of leaded Avgas.
A study by researchers at the University of Kent in 2022 found most piston engine aircraft in the UK used leaded aviation fuel and that there were “370,632 residences within 4km of a general aviation airport at risk from exposure to lead emissions”.
Leaded aviation fuel (AVGAS100LL) contains 0.56 grammes of tetraethyl lead per litre, which is expelled from the engine during an aircraft’s flight.
Ashley Mills, a public health data scientist who led the University of Kent study, said planes using this fuel distributed the toxic metal into the air and soil around airports and called for the UK to phase out leaded Avgas by 2030.
“The lack of adoption [of lead-free fuel] is due to unavailability and pilot perceptions around suitability,” Mills said, citing GAMI’s G100UL, a high-octane lead-free fuel certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, the US aviation regulator. “The main barrier here is political will.”
Lee Crawfurd, research fellow at the Centre for Global Development, a think-tank in Washington DC, said it was “shocking . . . that it’s OK for people to pump out neurotoxins into the air above children’s homes and schools for the sake of a hobby”.
“Banning leaded aviation fuel would be really easy. There can’t be very many better value things we could do for public health, education, and productivity.”
A recommendation to ban the use of TEL in aviation fuels would be made by the UK Health and Safety Executive, the watchdog for work-related safety, under its Reach (registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals) regulation.
Reach reassessed aviation fluids this year and decided not to recommend curbing the use of TEL. HSE officials said ultimately it was for a minister to make a decision on regulatory action.
They added that strict airworthiness requirements for these aircraft meant alternative fuels would need to undergo extensive testing in order to demonstrate they would be suitable and not lead to catastrophic engine failures.
Siân Berry, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion and a long-term clean air campaigner, said the continued use of lead based fuels was “really worrying as the impact . . . will be concentrated in certain areas”.
“We need to look at all aspects of cleaning up hazards in our air . . . [and] we need to make sure we are not behind the rest of the world in phasing this out,” she added.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP and the party’s transport spokesperson, said: “Ministers should be looking to legislate to bring an end to the use of leaded fuel on small aircraft. Both the EU and America have already taken these steps and the UK should follow that to minimise any risk it could have to the health of our nation.”
Mills at Kent university said that, from April 2025, the government “should differentiate fuel duty on leaded and unleaded Avgas to incentivise unleaded-capable pilots to switch”.
Duty on Avgas — which has stood at 38p per litre since January 2021 — should rise every year until 2030, when it should be illegal to sell the leaded fuel in the UK, he added. The Treasury was contacted for comment.
Johann Beckford, senior policy adviser at the Green Alliance, a think-tank, said it was “important to remain in line with the EU and US in terms of the regulations we follow”.
“The time has come for a ban on lead in aviation fuel to support children’s health,” he added. “In the longer term, government needs to support the development of zero emission flight alternatives to cut emissions.”
The Department for Transport said it was “committed to making flying cleaner” and that there were “not enough widely available alternatives to leaded fuels which can be used by all general aviation aircraft”.
“We are working closely with the industry and the UK Health and Safety Executive to move towards lead-free alternatives as quickly as possible,” it added.