Since the patents affected the marketing of TEL, General Motors and ESSO formed Ethyl Corp; each parent company had a 50% stake in the new corporation.

While the company tried to hush the news, at times it was impossible, for example in 1924, within the first two months of its operation, the facility had 17 cases of severe lead poisoning leading to hallucinations and insanity, then five production workers died in quick succession, and 35 more turned into staggering wrecks at one ill-ventilated facility.

It is believed that General Motors sought to divest itself of "Ethyl Corporation," owing to concern about liabilities of TEL.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Ethyl Corporation expanded and diversified in response to the gradual decline of the market for TEL, as the automotive industry shifted to unleaded gasoline in response to the recently passed Clean Air Act, which effectively ended the use of leaded gas in new automobiles.

Ethyl Corporation historically denied that tetraethyllead poses significant public health risks in excess of those associated with gasoline itself.