I guess you could draw a line between "someone told you, you listened, and you chose not to internalize that information" and "your brain is too rotted out from

I guess you could draw a line between "someone told you, you listened, and you chose not to internalize that information" and "your brain is too rotted out from lead poisoning to care about the dangers of lead poisoning"? If you yourself have to take a leave of absence (admitting the cause) and dozens of your employees become sick with the same thing (many of whom die), it's certainly not unknown. Whether it's unappreciated or ignored is different. In this case I don't think we can know for sure. I would speculate, though, that Midgley knew exactly what he was doing. After the state of NJ shut down his plant, the feds had it reopened. TEL was important for military purposes. Midgley knew that he found himself possessing a key ingredient for internal combustion. It's not often that you can insert yourself as a key component of an existing (fifteen year old!) industry. He knew he could put on a show and downplay the risks, and if he pulled it off he'd be rich like a Rockefeller.