Opal (gasoline)
Opal is a type of low aromatic gasoline ( 91 RON ) developed by BP Australia in 2005 to combat the aboriginal use of gasoline as a inhalant in rural areas .
Before Opal was launched, BP had already sold the Comgas brand, AvGas grade aviation fuel , to many Australian communities to prevent the use of fuel as an addictive substance . Due to the toxic ingredient tetraethyl lead , this procedure was discontinued.
The intoxicating effect when sniffing is created by aromatics such as toluene and xylene . Typical unleaded gasoline contains up to 25 percent aromatics. In contrast, opal contains only 5 percent aromatics. It is therefore far less suitable than snuff. Since the cost of manufacturing opal gasoline is higher than the cost of regular gasoline, this fuel comes with a federal grant of 0.33 AUD subsidized per liter by the Australian government .
A 2006 study found that taking into account the social and health costs of gasoline sniffing, introducing opal gas would save at least A $ 27 million per year. A 2010 Australian Senate report showed that the introduction of opal to 106 Australian communities had resulted in a 70 percent decrease in gasoline sniffing in those communities. However, a lot of normal gasoline from outside the community is still being sniffed. Extensive regional use should further reduce this. According to BP, a total of 132 million liters of Opal were used between the introduction of this fuel and 2012.
In 2017 it was reported that some young people from Arnhem Land had used the opal gasoline as a sniff, despite the lower aromatic content.
Web links
- Find answers to all your Opal fuel questions here BP Australia website
- Can new non-toxic products eliminate petrol sniffing behaviors in remote indigenous communities? (PDF) Master's thesis Brett Badger, BA, RMIT University , June 2005 (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ The impact of opal fuel. Australian Parliament , June 2006, accessed May 27, 2020 .
- ^ Opal ( Memento of May 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
- ↑ Unsniffable fuel roll-out crucial ( Memento of March 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
- ↑ Opal fuel leads to 70pc drop in petrol sniffing. In: ABC News Online. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, June 24, 2010, accessed May 27, 2020 .
- ↑ Opal FAQs. BP Australia, accessed May 27, 2020 .
- ↑ Low Aromatic Fuel Bill 2012. Australian Parliament , February 6, 2013, accessed July 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Desperate youths sniffing 'unsniffable' Opal fuel. In: NT News. September 9, 2017, accessed July 8, 2020 .