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Friday, June 1, 2001
The recommendation is reported in the June 1 issue of Environmental Science & Technology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.
One significant pollutant from mowers is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, said Roger Westerholm, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Stockholm University in Stockholm, Sweden. He claims such emissions, similar for both riding and push mowers, can be cut more than 80 percent using a catalytic converter like those used in automobiles.
Westerholm found that the worst case of lawn mower PAH emissions totaled more than 4,000 micrograms per hour using unleaded fuel without a catalytic converter. Average emissions dropped to nearly 800 micrograms over the same time period with the addition of a catalytic converter, he said. Some PAHs, including a few in lawn mower emissions, are classified as probable carcinogens by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Obviously, if catalysts will become mandatory on lawn mower engines, and possibly other small engines as well, a significant reduction of exhaust components will be achieved," Westerholm said.
In 1998, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued the so-called "Phase I" rules, which mandated a 32 percent reduction in emissions for small "non-road" engines. This affects all engines less than 25 horsepower produced after 1997, including mowers, leaf blowers and chain saws. According to an EPA study prior to the Clean Air Act of 1990, small engines from lawn and garden equipment make up nearly 9 percent of some types of air pollution. While current mowers meet the reduced emissions standards, catalytic converters would lower emissions levels further, Westerholm said.
In the Swedish testing, the researchers used regular unleaded fuel in a typical four-stroke, four horsepower lawn mower engine and found, after one hour, that the PAH emissions are similar to a modern gasoline-powered car driving approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles). A typical push-type lawn mower is run for an average of 25 hours per year, according to the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute. A higher-octane fuel known as alkylate also was tested and resulted in lower emissions. Alkylate is difficult to find in the United States and significantly more expensive than regular unleaded fuel in Europe.
Catalytic converters are already available on some European mowers, Westerholm reported. The pollution-control devices have been required on U.S. made cars since the late 1970s.
"Using a catalyst would help prevent most emissions from small engines," he said. "Of course, people could also use an electrical-powered lawn mower instead."
The research cited above was funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
Roger Westerholm, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the department of analytical chemistry at Stockholm University in Stockholm, Sweden.
Just makes me want to go and mow the yard! 8\_
If someone would sell a catalytic converter as a replacement muffler, at a reasonable cost, I would change my current mower's muffler.
And soon it will be against the law to mow your lawn with a gas powered mower. We will be required to use an electric mower. But, wait, we are in an energy crises and need to conserve. So, we don't mow the lawn because we have to conserve electricity and along comes the city ordinance cops with their ticket book in had because the lawn is overgrown!
Wonder how long it will take this to reach the good old US of A?
Seems to me they ought to mandate the use of sheep to keep everyone's grass under control.
First toilets, then clothes washers, now mowers.
What's next?
And soon it will be against the law to mow your lawn with a gas powered mower. We will be required to use an electric mower. But, wait, we are in an energy crises and need to conserve. So, we don't mow the lawn because we have to conserve electricity and along comes the city ordinance cops with their ticket book in had because the lawn is overgrown!
I used to use a push mower, human powered, made the lawn look like a putting green.
They'll never get my supercharged nitro-injected Snapper
Five minutes of a liberal spouting B/S is equal to 1000 miles of automobile pollution.
I think I'll put 100 miles on my mower this weekend.
Just mowed my lawn but maybe I'll just fire it up and let it run for an hour just for kicks. Winters are too damn cold here in the Northeast, maybe a little global warming would help.
Wasn't there a kid who rode his lawnmower across the country to the White House a couple of years ago to draw attention to something? Now there's some serious emmissions!
They've already started the anti gas powered mower propganda here in good old kali...they just had a "turn in your gas powered mower" day at the local University. In return you get a voucher that "allows" you to buy an expensive electric one...excuse me.. weren't they just telling us NOT to use so much electricity?? Boggles the mind living here.
Too cool! I'll have to get my butt in gear and make the old Craftsman`into a racing tractor.
I saw where vegetarians emit more flatulence (a greenhouse gas) than other people. Let the Draconian regulations begin.
Just got in from three hours of mowing the lawn when I saw this thread. Damn! I could have spent the afternoon cruising around in my air-conditioned Nissan with a beer in my hand instead - and helped the environment in the process!
...Except that compared to the number of cars, lawn mowers as a source of total pollution is minute. And the cost of putting convereter on lawn movers will drive the cost of lawn mowers way up. Did the article mention that?
Damn! I could have spent the afternoon cruising around in my air-conditioned Nissan with a beer in my hand instead.
Might I suggest an air-conditioned cab and a beverage holder for the tractor? Then you can relax in comfort and enjoy a cold Sammie while polluting the environment.
Seems to me they ought to mandate the use of sheep to keep everyone's grass under control.
Nope, sorry, sheep give off too much green house gas and PETA would never allow it. Wow are you pollitically incorrect.
Is this going to be as big of an improvement as those ridiculous one gallon per flush toilets?
Can someone tell me how we are supposedly conserving water by using these low-flow pieces of garbage when it now takes me 2 flushes to get it all down??????? Instead of the bad old tanks that were 1.6 gallons per flush, now I have to use 2.0 gallons to do the same job.
That, my friends, is the fruit of all Socialist labor.
Nope, sorry, sheep give off too much green house gas and PETA would never allow it. Wow are you pollitically incorrect.
That and they'd be too tired for sex.
So, how bad is 100 miles of auto pollution? Will 100 kids die? Will a bunch of trees fall over? The stupid press reports this #&%@ and then doesn't have enough smarts to ask what the results will be.
Why do we need the present clean air standards? Where is the proof of any harm caused if the clean air standards are not exactly what the blankety-blank EPA says they should be?
We have allowed our press and the NEA teachers to brainwash us and our kids concerning the environment and we don't really know what is harmful or how much is really harmful.
Can someone tell me how we are supposedly conserving water by using these low-flow pieces of garbage when it now takes me 2 flushes to get it all down???????
2 flushes? Sounds like you need to eat more roughage ;-).
Take it from a former golf course superintendent,green fees will double if this idiocy takes hold!!. Luckily I can play anywhere for free!!
I can't find the source, but I read recently that the real pollution from cutting a lawn isn't from the mower at all, it's from the fresh-cut grass emitting hydrocarbons. If so, it's a real reason for never cutting the lawn at all. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
If someone would sell a catalytic converter as a replacement muffler, at a reasonable cost, I would change my current mower's muffler.
Even if it were that simple, do you honestly believe the EPA would go for a cheap, easy fix that did not allow them to make draconian demands on people in evil places like Texas and South Dakota?
I've been maintaining for years that we could save alot of time, money and effort by just paving the lawn over and painting it green ... and then in the fall, leaves will just blow into some else's yard ... I knew I was right all along.
What we have here is a study based on a single component type.
The background level of PAH's is from 0.02-1.2 mg/cubic meter in rural areas and more in
urban areas. It the country, on a 50m x 50m lawn that took 1 hour to mow with no wind and assuming the air only extended up 3m (about 10 ft.) a minimum level of 0.02mg/cubic meter would increase increase from 150 mg of PHA's to 154 mg of PHA's. Or the level would be increase from .020000 to .02053333 mg/cubic meter.
Not only is it small, the effects on health are unknown! But, beware, soon PDH's will be the worst enemy of
mankind and womankind out there.
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
(PAHs)
ATSDR Public Health Statement, December 1990
Health effects minimal in animals or not known!
Health effects not known!
Yup, anything that gets me out of cutting the grass is great!!! But now I understand that they're attacking leaf blowers in some municipalities around the country. Apparently, pollution causing and noisy to boot!!
Can't have that law pass, Gotta have my blower...
We will be required to use an electric mower.
It'll have to be cordless. If you tried to make a corded one some idiot would mow the cord and electrocute himself, and they'd be illegal the next day.
I also read somewhere that one Nascar race is the pollution equivalent of 5 billion enviro-nazis farting in unison. 'Tis true.
What are you feeling soooo guilty about! It just so happens the Swiss have patent rights on these converters and stock on hand!
We use a reel mower. (We're also relatively young and healthy). Works just fine and is great exercise. Also is nice and quiet and doesn't stink. Only drawback is the sharpening required.
I've been maintaining for years that we could save alot of time, money and effort by just paving the lawn over and painting it green ... and then in the fall, leaves will just blow into some else's yard ... I knew I was right all along.
I think it should be mandated that all yards be artifical turf. I would call the Brady Yard Bill.
Today there is no breeze and the gray-brown cloud shrouds the city.
Try using a reel mower on 3/4 of a sloping acre! Got all weekend to mow? They do cut nice though.
Last month I finally mothballed the conventional mowers (1 regular, 1 field mower) in the shed and got a Honda riding mower. It's not the effort to use the others (wasn't too bad), but I cut mowing time for front+back from 4-1/2 hours to a little less than 2 hours. And afterward I'm still ready to do something else instead of heading for the shower and the lounge chair.
The time savings is valuable. Plus it has a beer holder.
"Westerholm found that the worst case of lawn mower PAH emissions totaled more than 4,000 micrograms per hour using unleaded fuel without a catalytic converter."
No doubt that they used a poorly running lawnboy for that test. In case anyone does not know it these mufflers are going to be very expensive. You will have a hundred dollar muffler on your lawnmower...what do you think that will do to the price of a new mower. On top of that the word is that if you should tip your mower or by some other unfourtunate means...You get oil in this muffler than it is junk and plugged. You will have no choice but to replace it. More Government interference in the intrest of power. I suppose the day is comming when you will have to take your lawnmower in for a yearly inspection of the safety switchs and emissions.
... So, we don't mow the lawn because we have to conserve electricity......not to mention the fact that using electricity only moves the supposed pollution back a step to the generating plants, which, according to the reactionary-conservative-environmentalists who want all nature returned to the spotless state it was in a hundred years ago, are probably worse polluters than any dinky little lawnmower gas engine...
ROFLOL ...
Just bought a Husqvarna 42", my boys rode the Honda onto the ground ... does great and cut their time in half ... but I still like my green pavement notion.
” If someone would sell a catalytic converter as a replacement muffler, at a reasonable cost …”
A catalytic converter at a reasonable price? Yea, right.
It'll have to be cordless. If you tried to make a corded one some idiot would mow the cord and electrocute himself, and they'd be illegal the next day.
I'm telling on myself here, but you'll laugh.
Many years ago, when I was a know-it-all teenager, I was trimming the hedges at my grandfather's house with his electric hedge trimmers.
He tells me to be careful of the cord. I say, "Don't worry grandpa, I've got it under control." The very next second, right there in front of him, I cut the cord completely in two with the trimmer.
Lucky for me the housing was plastic.
I also read somewhere that one Nascar race is the pollution equivalent of 5 billion enviro-nazis farting in unison.
Does this refer to chemical or noise pollution?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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