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http://www.ksl.com/?sid=22281475&ni...rucks-are-earths-bigger-threat&s_cid=queue-16
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — It's juicy, smoky and one of the quintessential American summer foods: A charbroiled burger. Aside from making mouths water, though, it produces more pollution than a diesel truck.
That's what researchers at the University of California-Riverside claim to have found while conducting a study on commercial charbroilers in Southern California. They say the particulate matter from these cookers is the second largest emitter of particulate matter in the South Coast Air Basin.
"Emissions from commercial charbroilers are a very significant uncontrolled source of particulate matter…more than twice the contribution by all of the heavy-duty diesel trucks," said Bill Welch, an engineer at the UC Riverside Center for Environmental Research and Technology. "For comparison, an 18-wheeler diesel-engine truck would have to drive 143 miles on the freeway to put out the same mass of particles as a single charbroiled hamburger patty. "
CE-CERT intends to study the emissions of these cookers to determine whether it's possible to control the amount of particulate matter they release.
Grease, water vapor, charring meat, oil and other combustion products combine to produce the particulate matter that flows from broilers. Particulate matter is particularly nasty, and has been shown to cause cancer and asthmas, as well as contributing to climate change.
Another big source of particulate pollution is smoke from fires, something that Utah has become extremely familiar with over this summer, with smoke filling the valleys in Utah County and Salt Lake county fairly regularly.
Researchers didn't indicate how charbroilers stacked up against more serious sources of air pollution like cars and industrial emissions.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — It's juicy, smoky and one of the quintessential American summer foods: A charbroiled burger. Aside from making mouths water, though, it produces more pollution than a diesel truck.
That's what researchers at the University of California-Riverside claim to have found while conducting a study on commercial charbroilers in Southern California. They say the particulate matter from these cookers is the second largest emitter of particulate matter in the South Coast Air Basin.
"Emissions from commercial charbroilers are a very significant uncontrolled source of particulate matter…more than twice the contribution by all of the heavy-duty diesel trucks," said Bill Welch, an engineer at the UC Riverside Center for Environmental Research and Technology. "For comparison, an 18-wheeler diesel-engine truck would have to drive 143 miles on the freeway to put out the same mass of particles as a single charbroiled hamburger patty. "
CE-CERT intends to study the emissions of these cookers to determine whether it's possible to control the amount of particulate matter they release.
Grease, water vapor, charring meat, oil and other combustion products combine to produce the particulate matter that flows from broilers. Particulate matter is particularly nasty, and has been shown to cause cancer and asthmas, as well as contributing to climate change.
Another big source of particulate pollution is smoke from fires, something that Utah has become extremely familiar with over this summer, with smoke filling the valleys in Utah County and Salt Lake county fairly regularly.
Researchers didn't indicate how charbroilers stacked up against more serious sources of air pollution like cars and industrial emissions.
