[Judy Pino] 
Hello, and welcome 
to Green Scene,
a series of environmental 
podcasts that you can
take with you.
I'm Judy Pino.
Did you know that Americans 
spend more than three billion
hours per year using lawn 
and garden equipment,
and many, many more hours 
using recreational boats?
Well, these engines powering 
our boats and lawn mowers
may be small, but their 
emissions are large,
and they are contributing to 
serious air quality issues.
To confront those issues, the 
Environmental Protection Agency
is adopting new exhaust 
emissions standards for
equipment and small boats 
using these engines.
To tell us more about these new 
standards is Lori Stewart,
associate office director of 
EPA's Office of Transportation
and Air Quality.
Welcome, Lori.
[Lori Stewart] 
Thank you, Judy, 
nice to be here.
[Judy Pino] 
Well, these are all 
domestic items, Lori.
Anyone of us could own it 
at any point in time.
What are these standards and 
why is EPA adopting them?
[Lori Stewart] 
Yes, as you said, Judy, we've 
just established standards on
lawn and garden equipment as 
well as on gasoline-powered
recreational boats.
What we're talking about here 
is lawn mowers, leaf blowers,
fishing vessels, really any 
marine vessel that's not
operated on 
diesel fuel.
For our lawn and 
garden standards,
we're going to be seeing 
35 percent reductions in
smog-forming pollutants, 
hydrocarbons,
and nitrogen oxides.
We're also going to be 
seeing about a 45 percent
significant reduction in 
evaporative emissions,
which are toxic from 
the fuel itself.
And we even go further 
for the marine vessels,
where we're going to be seeing 
50-70 percent reduction
in these pollutants.
This is going to significantly 
help areas that are trying
to achieve their air quality 
standards across the country.
[Judy Pino] 
Now, when people hear 
this, they'll say,
"Well, what are the costs and 
benefits of implementing
standards like this?"
[Lori Stewart] 
These standards are extremely 
cost effective.
We estimate billions of dollars 
in public health benefits that
outweigh the costs by a ratio 
of greater than 8-to-1.
Once the standards are 
fully implemented,
we estimate that hundreds of 
premature deaths will be
avoided each year, thousands 
of hospitalizations and
emergency room visits 
will be avoided,
and tens of thousands of missed 
work days and school days
will be avoided.
In addition to that, consumers 
will save millions of gallons
of gasoline, which not only 
saves the consumer money,
but will also reduce greenhouse 
gases that contribute to
climate change.
[Judy Pino] 
Just by the numbers, 
EPA estimates that
these standards will help 
prevent the following
each year: between 300 and 
500 premature deaths,
1,700 hospitalizations and 
emergency room visits,
23,000 work days lost, and 
180,000 school days lost.
That's pretty
significant.
[Lori Stewart] 
Yes, it certainly is.
[Judy Pino] 
Why focus on 
this now?
[Lori Stewart] 
Well, as you know, Judy, 
we have made tremendous
progress in this country over 
the last several decades
on air quality, and we've set 
increasingly strict mobile
source emissions standards 
for cars, trucks,
farm/construction equipment, 
even commercial marine vessels
and locomotives.
But we still have 
a long way to go.
We've got over half 
of this country,
about 160 million people, 
still living in non-attainment
areas for either ozone 
or particulate matter,
and these lawn mowers and 
recreational boat engines
are similar to the combustion 
engines we use in our vehicles,
but they have not had the 
emissions controls that
we've experienced over the 
last couple of decades with
our vehicles.
And because of that 
they contribute about
a quarter of the hydrocarbon 
and carbon monoxide emissions
from mobile sources in general, 
so reducing these emissions
is going to significantly help 
air quality across the country.
[Judy Pino]
And what kind of serious air 
quality issues can these --
[Lori Stewart] 
Particularly smog-forming 
contaminants as well as
carbon monoxide, and some 
particulate matter reductions
will also 
be achieved.
[Judy Pino] 
And what serious air quality 
problems are we talking about?
[Lori Stewart] 
Particularly smog problems, 
I think, would be the most
significant area that these 
standards will assist on,
as well as carbon monoxide and 
particulate matter reduction.
[Judy Pino] 
So, as we all know, there are 
plenty of people out there
with lawn mowers and 
recreational boats
out there.
How are these standards 
going to affect them?
[Lori Stewart] 
Well, most Americans are either 
going to be operating one of
these small gasoline engines or 
are going to be exposed to
the emissions.
So these standards not only 
benefit the person who's
directly affected by these 
engines or directly operating
them, but it will benefit 
the community as a whole.
One thing we do want to 
emphasize is that the
standards only apply 
to new engines,
so those old engines in 
your garage are not
going to be impacted.
And we want the consumers to 
know that if you purchase
these gasoline-powered boats, 
starting in 2010 they will be
subject to these new 
emissions standards.
And the lawn and garden 
equipment will be subject
to the standards
in 2011.
[Judy Pino] 
So, we'll be able to 
upgrade if we'd like.
[Lori Stewart] 
Yes, and for that matter, 
even the two strokes on 
some of these gasoline 
motorboats can be upgraded 
to four strokes, so you don't 
necessarily have to replace 
the whole vessel to get the 
benefits of these standards.
[Judy Pino] 
Good to know.
Thank you, Lori Stewart, 
associate office director
of EPA's Office 
of Transportation
and Air Quality, 
for being with us.
All good information.
[Lori Stewart] 
Thank you, Judy.
[Judy Pino] 
And if you would like to 
learn more about these
new emissions standards 
for small engines,
please visit www.epa.gov/otaq, 
O-T-A-Q.
See you next time 
on Green Scene.