<
https://electrek.co/2024/10/17/gas-lawn-equipment-is-horrible-for-health-heres-how-these-cities-are-fixing-it/>
"A new interactive mapping tool shows how a growing number of US cities and
states have passed regulations restricting the use of gas-powered lawn
equipment, or incentivizing the use of electric equipment, with big clean air
benefits for a comparatively small investment.
While gas lawn equipment use may seem like it’s not all that big a deal at
first glance, gas leafblowers and lawnmowers can actually extremely bad for air
and human health – sometimes moreso than cars.
The issue is that “small off-road engines” (SOREs) usually don’t include any
sort of pollution controls, and are often dirtier two-stroke engines that
create more power in a small package, but emit orders of magnitude more
pollution in the form of unburned particulates from the incomplete combustion
process they undergo when compared to four-stroke engines.
As a result, running a gas leaf blower for an hour can produce more emissions
of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and reactive organic gases (ROG) than driving a small
passenger car 1,000 miles. The car still has plenty of other impacts – higher
carbon emissions and energy use, contribution to sprawl and land use, oil
dependency and so on – but for these specific smog-forming pollutants, SOREs
have a major impact.
It’s gotten to the point where California regulators at one point said that gas
lawn equipment was responsible for more NOx + ROG emissions statewide than
passenger cars did. And in Colorado, lawn & garden equipment contributes about
a third as much ozone as the Colorado’s large oil & gas industry, or also about
a third as much as
all on-road vehicles combined (including heavy duty
trucks).
This pollution doesn’t just form smog and harm human health, but when it
happens in residential areas as it often does, it can directly pollute the air
of the homes nearby – and operators, of course, have to breathe it every day.
Not only that, but the rumbling noise of lawn equipment can create quite a
nuisance in residential areas, especially with the rising popularity of working
from home.
As a result of all of this, regulators in many states and cities have
recognized that restrictions on gas lawn equipment can give outsized air
quality benefits for relatively little cost or disruption, and that’s exactly
what they’ve done in many places across the country, according to a new
analysis by U.S. PIRG."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
