PETROL-driven lawnmowers in Europe should be fitted with catalytic
converters. Until then the sweet smell of freshly cut grass wafting across
suburbia will continue to be mixed with alarming quantities of cancer-causing
chemicals.
A pioneering study by Roger Westerholm, an analytical chemist at Stockholm
University, has found that one hour’s mowing produces as much polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as a 150-kilometre drive in an average car. The 4
milligrams of PAHs emitted by the exhaust of a typical Swedish mower in an hour
included “relatively large amounts of carcinogenic PAHs”, Westerholm says.
He found 26 different PAHs in the mower…
