ONE HOUR OF LAWN CUTTING EQUALS DRIVING 100 MILES

(ENS) - The average air pollution from cutting grass for an hour with a gasoline-powered lawn mower is about the same as that from driving 100 miles in a car, according to a new study from Sweden. The report recommends using catalytic converters on mowers. The study's author says emissions from mowers can be cut by more than 80 percent using a catalytic converter like those used in automobiles. Each weekend, about 54 million Americans mow their lawns, using 800 million gallons of gas per year and producing tons of air pollutants. Since this equipment is used mostly during the hot summer months, when ground level ozone is the highest, it causes problems for asthmatics and aggravates other respiratory conditions.

"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," said the author. In 1998 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued rules mandating 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. The EPA says that before the Clean Air Act of 1990, small engines from lawn and garden equipment made up almost nine percent of some types of air pollution. Current mowers meet the reduced emissions standards, but catalytic converters would lower emissions levels further. In March 2000, the EPA ordered major cuts in emissions from lawnmowers, chainsaws, leaf blowers and other small engine powered equipment. By 2007, when the new standards will be fully in place, the ground level ozone pollution caused by these engines will be cut by 70 percent or 350,000 tons each year. The 20,000,000 small engines sold in the US each year contribute about one tenth of this country's total mobile source hydrocarbon emissions, and are the largest single contributor to these non-road emissions. The Swedish report is in the June 1, 2001 issue of the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology.