Snooze wrote:
"According to the Lung Association, a leaf blower causes as much
smog as
17
cars . "

This reminds of the quote, "there are lies, damn lies and statistics."
17
times more pollution sounds really bad, but consider this. If you use
your
gas powered leaf blower for 10 minutes every week, that translates to
170
minutes of driving time a week, about 24.2 minutes a day.

If you are a 2 car household that's only 12.1 minutes per car.
Considering
that US average commute time to work is about 20 minutes, or 40
minutes
round trip. Cars pollute far more then a leaf blower.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/...cb02cn117.html

But the point is that for each minute you are using your leaf blower,
you're polluting 17 times as much as each minute you drive your car. How
often you use your car, or how often you use the leaf blower is
irrelevant.

Each time I fart I make a horrible stink in the room. Far more than my
car would make. How much I drive my car is irrelevant. My fart still
stinks more than my car. Be thankful that I don't fart as much as I
drive, but don't forgive my fart just because I drive a lot.

It also doesn't matter if there are more cars than leaf blowers. If that
were a justification, the oil-fired power plant down the road could
defend it's polution by pointing out that there's only one plant for
every one million cars.

The point is that a leaf blower puts out a disportional amount of
polution for it's size. Comparing it to a typical car is only meant to
emphisize that an engine far to big to strap on your back is 17 times
cleaner for each minute of use.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug: Celebrate Christmas with The Simpsons
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/simpsons.html