Finally, The Last Country Has Switched To Lead-Free Gasoline

 #358: The Day Our Afghan War Ended

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Back in 2018, Kevin Drum, then at Mother Jones (now blogging on his own), wrote a wrap-up piece on how leaded gas has been responsible for elevated levels of crime and violence.  Here's the link.   At the time, he suggested that the Middle East would be a much calmer place once all leaded gas is a distant memory (15-20 years or so).

Well, today, the BBC reports that Algeria finally made the world lead-free.   

The countries that have only recently gotten the lead out are a list of the world's troubled and war-torn areas: 

"North Korea, Myanmar and Afghanistan stopped selling leaded petrol by 2016, leaving only a handful of countries, including Iraq, Yemen and Algeria, still providing the toxic fuel in the latter half of the last decade."

So, by the 2040s, a place like Afghanistan will finally begin its return to a less feverish state.