I found the answer moderately useful.
These engines not only produce a ton of particulate emissions, but also a lot of half-burned and unburned hydrocarbons. Including formaldehyde, benzene, and all kinds of other craps.
You can at least filter out particulates with a N99 mask, but it does nothing against hydrocarbons.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtm...
> Brand new gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers will soon become scarce in California. In October 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law banning the sale of gas-powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers, as well as any other equipment using small off-road engines, also known as SOREs. These engines traditionally power equipment used in lawn care and landscaping.
> Small engine-based tools are a surprisingly large source of carbon emissions and air pollution. According to the California Air Resources Board, just one hour of gas leaf blower use is the equivalent of driving 1,100 miles. Running a gas lawn mower for the same period equates to a 300-mile drive.
https://www.cnet.com/home/yard-and-outdoors/loud-gas-belchin...
https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/msprog/offroad/sm_en_fs.pdf
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/04/30/gas-le... ("Gas leaf blowers and lawn mowers are shockingly bad for the planet. Bans are beginning to spread.")
(electric landscaping tools are at parity, check out the EGO brand for an example: https://egopowerplus.com/)
https://phys.org/news/2014-05-two-stroke-scooters-super-poll...
I'm all for electrifying yard tools, but electric blowers still aren't anywhere near a high end Stihl or Husqvarna in performance.
Compare Table 3 to Table 5. PM emissions from exhaust are on the order of 1 gram per hour. Whereas fugitive dust emissions, depending on the surface, are 100s or 1000s of grams per hour.
There isn't a lot of data on how much the chemical makeup of particulates affects health, nor on what the makeup of particulates likely to be kicked up by a leaf-blower are. At least some of the particulates from two-stroke engine emissions are known to be really bad (e.g. partially combusted lubricants). So the jury is out on if the particulate related health risks are dominated by the engine or the dust. If you think "all PM2.5 is bad" then it's almost certainly dominated by the dust though.
1: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/Health%20...
Perhaps this is true for certain types of air pollution, but there's no way it's true for carbon emissions. CO2 emitted has to be proportional to gasoline burned. And there's no way a leaf blower is consuming 25 gallons of gas per hour.
To drive 1100 miles, the commenter above gave an extremely generous 25 gallons of gas (likely closer to 40 for a non-Prius).
One gallon of gas produces about 20 pounds of CO2, which is about 73% oxygen (from the atmosphere) by weight. The remaining 27% of the weight comes from carbon.
So, one gallon of gasoline provides 20*0.27=5.4lbs of carbon to the CO2 produced. Multiply by 25, and you're looking at over 135lbs of carbon alone coming from your source when 25 gallons of gas are burned.
Considering that the amount of weight carried around by the user of a leaf blower is on the low tens of pounds, and not hundreds, it seems ludicrous to presume that a leaf blower produces anywhere near the amount of CO2 in an hour as does a car driving 1100 miles.
Even without the oil - 2-stroke engines will run on straight petrol, albeit briefly - they still emit an obscene amount of unburnt fuel.
This is the table in the source:
+--------------------+-------------------+-------------+---------------+
| | Exhaust Emissions | New vehicle | Older vehicle |
+--------------------+-------------------+-------------+---------------+
| Hydrocarbons | 199.26 | 0.39 | 201.9 |
| Carbon Monoxide | 423.53 | 15.97 | 1310 |
| Particulate Matter | 6.43 | 0.13 | 0.78 |
| Fugitive Dust | 48.6-1031 | N/A | N/A |
+--------------------+-------------------+-------------+---------------+
> Another way to visualize the data is to compare emissions for a given amount of leaf blower operation to miles traveled by car. The Air Resources Board regularly publishes such emissions benchmarks. Thus, 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 would be equivalent to about 440 miles of automobile travel at 30 miles per hour average speed.
So will old ones, if you run them on the right fuel.
My 25-year-old Range Rover has a 4.6 litre engine adapted to run on propane which is - under the right circumstances - a *negative* emission vehicle. It can have measurably less CO and HC in the exhaust than in the intake air (city air heavily contaminated with CO and HC for example from bus engines).
For most homeowners. Not for commercial usage. There's that battery charge issue still. There are workarounds that can help though.
A complex pays for regular landscaping services which turns into hours of painfully disruptive noise pollution often in the early hours for residents.
Stihl gas blower: 239mph 912cfm
Not even getting into weight, cost, or refuel times - that's extremely far from parity.
But i suppose they might temporarily kick up a bunch of dust, regardless of power source...
To me, this is why raking just makes sense. I can’t stand the dust from leaf blowers. And often, just mowing over the leaves is adequate and better for the environment.
New thing I'm trying this year is to pull garden weeds and toss them on top of the grass right before a mow as a two-bird-with-one-stone compost in place free grass fertilizer.
[edit]
I found a report[1] on page 22, the median estimated "fugitive dust" emmisions of blowing on a shoulder, or curb is about 480g (1lb) of PM2.5 per hour. It does note that this is a pure calculation and not empirically tested though. The entire range of their calculations put fugitive dust as higher particulate emissions than the exhaust (though the exhaust particulate of a 3hp leaf-blower (i.e. high-powered commercial) is already nearly 2 orders of magnitude higher than a modern light-duty vehicle and a 0.8hp (i.e. typical personal-use leafblower)).
1: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/Health%20...
It would be not that inconvenient to not drive for local trips but very inconvenient for longer trips? Or vice versa depending on where you live
People are cooking over coal/wood around the world, that is far far far worse than everything I've read(and that doesnt include industrial pollution). (Although 2 stroke engines and their byproducts are cancer causing, so... that is still valid)
As for 2-storkes, I can't stand them, but they are still a necessary evil in many situations. I have gas and electric chainsaw. The electric doesn't compare in power and capability - but it is also my favorite, so I use it when I can. I love not smelling like 2-stroke exhaust, the electric always "starts" too. Then a larger tree dies or a dozen blow down at once and I have to break out the gas saw...
(Also, if it stays in the garage most of the time, it doesn't really harm anyone. I think that's only common for retired people, though?)
I don't know how to price it. Most people don't really think about it that way.
Our next vehicle will be a full electric but that will probably be another 3-5 years unless we opt to be a one ICE, one electric car family sooner.
Rain is nice, but that has very little to do with it.
The growth in moat of these countries is up so much they cant burn enough coal to keep from brown outs.
Outsourced pollution.
If you need data, just peak at a global air pollution map. Dive into the historical metrics.
And people who drive generally have a legitimate need for one.
"Make your next car an EV" would be a better statement.
As a somewhat serious cyclist (I have 4 bikes - two for the road, two for MTB), I know which kind of car I would rather ride behind. (I have gone through a number of respro filters over the years..)
Sure, ICE cars cause more air pollution than EVs. But things like public transit tend to create even less, since there's not a need to have one vehicle per person.
Since public transit makes so much sense in dense cities compared to EVs, I think a lot of the frustration and down votes you face are due to that issue: why replace one known evil with another, when we have much better options available??
Yes you got to push alternatives.
But at the same time, at least 90% of the cars - and near 100% of buses - that are still going to be sold (no matter how one might wish for new cars not to be needed) should be _electric_ ones.
I live in a sprawled out city (Melbourne, AUS), where, especially if you have kids, a car is close to a darned necessity. So those cars are still going to be sold, and far too many of them are dirty gas guzzlers.
I like to walk and ride as much as possible, but after making the move to an EV myself (near 100% solar powered for half the year, then coal the other half - still way better than oil if you look at the whole CO² emission chain) it's amazing how sensitive I've gotten to petrol and diesel fumes.
We have one electric bus in my area. Absolutely awesome to see this first step. Yet a significant number of our trains are still using diesel - their fumes on that (Spencer Street) main connecting station are ridiculously toxic. There's just so much work to do..
Subways have wear-related particulate emissions too, with the added disadvantage of them being less easy to vent: https://nyulangone.org/news/pre-covid-19-subway-air-polluted...
Can I come hang out for a bit?
This is a specific case, but in a mid-sized town where I lived, they opened up a BBQ restaurant with massive outdoor grills. The grills were fired up 5 times a week, evenings and afternoons. While it was fun times with friends at the restaurant, the entire neighborhood smelled of BBQ. Worse, you could literally go on the PurpleAir US map and see the giant visual of where the smoke was going.
I cant imagine how the property values fared for nearby homes.
I dont know anything about restaurant regulations, but it seems that if BBQ was allowed at this scale and allowed on a daily basis, there should be some sort of filtering requirement for exhaust. Good samaritan citizens' strongest chance for such local issues is probably voter turnout at local elections.
The most important thing is: Don't use any kind of 2-stroke gas engine powered appliances. Leaf blowers, bush trimmers, mowers, cheap electricity generators... they aren't covered by usual emission regulations and thus have barely any exhaust filtering, leading to emission of insane amounts of all kinds of toxins. On top of that they're all very bad for the local ecosystem - mowed grass tends to dry out faster, leaf blowing (or removal in general) kills safe spaces for small lifeforms.
The next major pollutant are all sorts of furnaces and cooking appliances. Be it a wood pellet, gas or oil heating system, a gas stove, or the once-every-weekend BBQ... it all shows up on air quality sensors. Get a heat pump for heating (there are bi-directional air conditioners that can heat in the winter and cool in the summer), take care to not overheat oils in pans (decomposing oils are quite toxic!), and for heavens sake cut back on the BBQs if you value your lungs and those of your neighbours.
The last part is to quit smoking.
The stereotypical American lawn is a fairly new thing, basically "created" by Scott and the rest of the fertilizer industry in the 60s and 70s. Prior to this, lawns were mixed plants, and not expected to be nearly 100% grass. They were generally more drought tolerant and needed less maintenance (both water, fertilizer, and mowing).
Electric mowers (battery) are sufficiently good today that we really should phase out the sale of gas mowers. At least for "normal" sized lawns. Mechanical push mowers are also an option for small enough lawns.
And aside from inertia, there's no good reason that most yards need to be predominantly grass lawn. I've found that, at least for my small yard, hardscape, shrubs, and other plants are lower maintenance (twice annual pruning, monthly weeding during the grow season). I only water when I add/replace plants or particularly hot/dry weeks. And I've cut out all fertilizer. I've cut the amount of grass by about half and will likely cut it by another half at the end of this season. All my lawn tools are now battery powered as well.
I have an electric push mower for our home - we have probably 1500 sqft of grass currently (including the strip in front of our house that might technically be owned by the city) a single charge can mow everything if the grass isn't too long/wet, but there is usually a mow or two after spring rains that has to be done in two parts.
I also have a "cabin" (hopefully future farm) property that was horse pasture a decade ago. My splurge toy last year was an electric riding mower - ours is greenworks - and it is really a joy. Can mow 1-2 acres on a single charge (depending on grass height/dampness). It's so fun my wife and I have actually had an argument about who 'gets' to mow next.
Perhaps my favorite thing about electric mowers is they literally start with a button. Pull starting sucks, especially when it isn't working.
The problem is that there are political parties that make a political platform out of green lawns and BBQs all while knowing that they're deluding their voters and sending them off to catastrophe.
Wood and charcoal, yes. But natural gas and propane are clean burning. The difference between them are several orders of magnitude.
For stoves, gas stoves are being banned for new construction because they don't burn as cleanly as once thought [1].
For BBQs the heat source used doesn't matter (with the exception that coal units should never ever be used indoors), they all emit tons of toxic and highly odorious particles from all the oil and fats decomposing.
[1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/have-a-gas-stove-how-to-...
> The two-stroke leaf blower was worse still, generating 23 times the CO and nearly 300 times more NMHC than the crew cab pickup. Let's put that in perspective. To equal the hydrocarbon emissions of about a half-hour of yard work with this two-stroke leaf blower, you'd have to drive a [Ford F150] Raptor for 3,887 miles
https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/emissions-test-...
2-stroke are awful because they do not have oil sumps - the oil is mixed into the fuel and drawn into the piston through the crank case where some of the oil sticks to the moving parts to lubricate them. The rest is burnt and emitted as that awful blue smoke.
They're kinda clever as they can operate in any orientation thanks to the lack of the oil sump which makes them ideal for portable power tools which have to operate at a variety of angles. They also have no valves so are less complex and easier to maintain and have a pretty good power to weight ratio. They are valued in developing nations because of this so they are hard to get rid of.
New as in the last 40-50 years? Can you please give me examples of recent 2 stroke mowers and generators available in the USA? I haven't seen a 2 stroke generator or lawnmower in all my years and I used portable generators a bunch at my old job (Coleman, Generac, Honda, etc). However Ive seen plenty of small 2 stroke motors on hand held lawn and garden tools, chain saws, boat engines and dirt bikes.
The only 2-stroke generator I can think of are those really small antique 500W generators that I think Coleman made in the 1960's or 70's?
I would say electrifying your home would be a good first step. For example, we could replace following at home starting with:
Gas Furnace & AC -- Heat pump
Gas cooktop -- Electric cooktop
Gas Blowers, Mowers -- Electric versions of same
What are the effects of trees/plants on PM2.5 pollution? Are there plants that catch more? Do damp leaves catch more?
Does watering plants with a mist pull extra microparticles out of the air vs a stream? (if so, Do plants mind or benefit from the extra stuff in their water?)
Are there any "permaculture" solutions for air filtration? Could a filter caked with pm2.5 black carbon and whatnot be useful for anything else? Can I manufacture a filter that will reduce pm2.5 using home grown plant materials?
What if I converted a wall of my shed into all filtration material, made it airtight, and pushed air out the other side of the shed under solar power? How would 100sqft of filter give flexibility of filter media?
If I made a giant/parallelized bong in my backyard that constantly pulled air through water to try to catch microparticles, how big would it have to be to have an appreciable effect?