Letter To The Editor: April 1997

There has been an alarming number of attacks on gasoline-fueled power equipment in the media. We have been told repeatedly that this equipment emits pollutants, and we are led to believe it is a major cause of air pollution. We have been bribed by manufacturers to trade in our gasoline-powered mowers for electric ones, and we have been led to believe by misinformed, naive and ignorant people that this equipment should be banned. I would like to clear some of the air surrounding the use of this equipment.

First, installing and maintaining quality landscapes helps our environment much more than it hurts. Landscaping enhances the value and beauty of our property while putting life-giving oxygen back into the atmosphere. Thousands of people are employed by this industry, as well as by the companies that manufacture and/or maintain this equipment. Presently, there are not comparable electric tools that will do the job of a professional quality gasoline-powered piece of outdoor power equipment.

In the 1980s, Congress passed the Clean Air Act, giving the government authority to identify polluters and require them to eliminate the pollution. For years, the Environmental Protection Agency and state agencies focused on major polluters. If these agencies were to continue with their efforts, they would either bankrupt those companies or make their products so expensive none of us would be able to afford them. The agencies have thus directed their efforts toward smaller sources of pollution, such as the outdoor power equipment industry, that do not have the resources of the larger companies to defend themselves.

In the early 1990s, California Air Resources Board identified gasoline-powered landscaping equipment as a source of air pollution and drafted emission standards for this equipment. Regulations took effect in January 1996. The EPA adopted similar regulations for the entire country, which take effect this year. Our industry has spent an estimated $60 million during the last 5 years meeting or exceeding these new emission standards. Lawn mowers, trimmers, leaf blowers, chain saws, hedge trimmers and the like are now being manufactured to be much cleaner. But just how dirty were they before these new costly regulations were enacted?

In a study commissioned by the Portable Power Equipment Manufacturers Association in the mid-1990s, the Heiden and Associates research group found the following (based on EPA data):

• The volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions inventory in the U.S. on an annual basis is made up of less than 0.8 percent from portable lawn and garden equipment. The other 99.2 percent comes from sources such as industrial processes, residential fuel consumption, automobiles, trucks, marine use, etc.



• VOCs for one year from industrial processes are the equivalent of 1.6 years of on-road emissions (autos and trucks, etc.); 11.4 years from residential fuel consumption; 12.8 years from recreational marine emissions; and 51.4 years from gasoline powered portable lawn and garden equipment.



• If we take a look at VOC emssions from just mobile sources, the automobile is still the largest single offender. Based on EPA data, it would take 5 years of recreational marine emissions, 21 years of portable lawn and garden equipment; or 439 years of chain saws to equal the emissions of automobiles for just one year.

Gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment represent a safe and efficient way to maintain a landscape. Don’t be fooled by just one side of the story.

Lee Richey
Western Regional Manager
Shindaiwa Inc., Tualatin, Ore.