When he was an instructor in the UC Department of Physiology in 1924, he was hired by Charles Kettering for General Motors (GM) to examine health issues related to the production of tetraethyllead (TEL).

[6] Kehoe was named Professor of Industrial Medicine at UC and put together an interdisciplinary team to investigate occupational-health issues.

[7] One of the people who was involved in this research was a co-author, Ivan F. Ferneau, who Kehoe said was administered potentially dangerous amounts of lead.

In 1921, the team directed by Midgley discovered TEL's anti-knocking property, which would eliminate the knock in internal combustion engines, allowing them to be built with higher compression ratios.

Kehoe soon became the main medical advocate for the position that the use of TEL in gasoline is safe and gained prominence as the industry's expert at government and public health hearings.

As almost all research support concerning leaded gasoline came from industry, and most was channeled to him, he held "an almost complete monopoly" on data for half a century.

[22] In a 1966 government hearing chaired by Senator Edmund Muskie, Kehoe stated that his laboratory "was the only source of new information (about lead exposure)" and "had wide influence (in the US and abroad) in shaping the point of view and activities... of those who are responsible for industrial and public hygiene".

In his testimony at the conference, Kehoe offered (speaking on behalf of the companies engaged in the Ethyl Gasoline enterprise) to discontinue the sale of gasoline containing lead "if it can be shown ... that an actual danger is had as a result..." But, he reasoned, if it could not be shown "on the basis of facts," a product this economically beneficial should not be "thrown into the discard on the basis of opinions."

Nriagu asserted that with the large investments by industry, the social and economic climate of the time, and the belief in progress, the outcome of the 1925 conference was preordained.

The credibility of Kehoe's research was bolstered for decades by the support of the US Public Health Service and American Medical Association.

The process of getting to certainty could be prolonged by challenging the methods and results and calling for more data, and while it was going on the product would continue to generate profits.

"[4] Kettering Laboratories under Kehoe's leadership also certified the safety of the fluorinated refrigerant, Freon, "another environmentally insensitive GM patent that would earn hundreds of millions before it was outlawed.