Quote:
Originally Posted by MandoMan View Post
I read this morning that in a half hour, the pollutants spewed by the average two-cycle engine in a leaf blower equals the pollution from a Ford F-150 pickup—over a 3,600 mile drive!
|
Carl Sagan tells us that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Your statement seems to cry out for such evidence. Perhaps you have a link to what you read?
The closest I could find was a story in the
Washington Post
It included links to two studies. One in
Edmunds from 2011 which specifically tested leaf blower vs Ford 150 Raptor trucks and included this:
"The hydrocarbon emissions from a half-hour of yard work with the two-stroke leaf blower are about the same as a 3,900-mile drive from Texas to Alaska in a Raptor"
But, being an automotive website they did what seems to be a misuse of data. They measured non methane hydrocarbon output. The
EPA does not list that group of compounds as greenhouse gases. The two cycle engine emitted 300 times the amount as the truck. CO [carbon monoxide] output of the blower was 23 times that of the truck. Only by using the non methane figures did they reach their estimate. This is dishonest IMO. Non methane hydrocarbons are a pollutant in haze and smog but they are nothing like CO2 or methane when it come to risk to the planet. And guess what Edmunds did not measure... CO2 emissions. That's why the headline hydrocarbon output. Carbon Dioxide is not a hydrocarbon but it is the major greenhouse gas produced by engines.
The
second study from Sweden references a potentially carcinogenic compound in both lawn mower and auto exhaust and suggests that adding catalytic converters to lawn mowers would be helpful. It also states that using a 4 HP push mower, the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons output of one hour of use is the same as 100 miles of driving a car, again not looking at CO2
What I could find does support the statement the OP made when only looking at some of the engine output but not looking at all the important chemicals in engine exhaust.
Now having said that, 2 cycle engines are terrible for our air. The stuff they spew is a pollutant especially creating smog. Leaf blowers additionally kick dust, molds etc that are on the ground back into the air, a problem not lessened by going to batteries.
Here are links worth reading IMO:
https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default...leaned_ADA.pdf This one shows the data used to inform the decision in California.
A summary would include small off-road engines such as those found in gas-powered leaf blowers are a larger source of smog-forming emissions than the state’s 14.4 million passenger cars.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...er-ban/583210/ an opinion piece, a bit short on science about how the ban on gas leaf blowers came to be in Washington DC