Banning leaf-blowers . Environmental Effects Based on 1998 data, a report from the California Environmental Protection Agency back in 2000 found that a leaf blower may produce much more pollution than a modern car in several categories excepting CO2. "For CO (Table 9), the estimated 423 g emitted by one hour of leaf blower use is approximately 26 times the amount emitted by a new vehicle, but approximately one-third of the CO emissions of an older vehicle. While not implying that the operator will inhale this amount of CO, these data do suggest concern about the relatively large amount of CO emitted directly into the air space surrounding the operator. For particulate matter exhaust emissions, the leaf blower emits eight to 49 times the particulates of a light duty vehicle, primarily because of the large amount of unburned fuel directly released by the two-stroke engine ... [and] for the average 1999 leaf blower and car data presented in Table 9, we calculate that hydrocarbon emissions from one-half hour of leaf blower operation equal about 7,700 miles of driving, at 30 miles per hour average speed. The carbon monoxide emission benchmark is signficantly different. For carbon monoxide, one-half hour of leaf blower useage (Table 9) would be equivalent to about 440 miles of automobile travel at 30 miles per hour average speed
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 15:55:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015