'... he's no mower that takes a nap at noon-day, but drives on, fair weather or foul, and cuts down the green grass as well as the ripe corn.' [Cervantes]You know what it's like. You are trying to enjoy a quiet coffee out the back on a Sunday morning when your neighbour starts up his very noisy, smelly motor mower. These ridiculous contraptions which are expensive, dangerous to your health and very unfriendly to the environment, are not even labour saving - most of them you still have to push!
54 million Americans mow their lawns with motor mowers using 800 million gallons of gasoline and pouring tons of pollutants into the atmosphere. The air pollution emitted from mowing your lawn for an hour with a gasoline powered lawn mower is equivalent to driving a motor vehicle for 160 kilometres. [mindfully.org]
If you don't give a stuff about the environment or your neighbour's peace, consider this. Over 80,000 Americans are injured by motor mowers every year. [Landscape Management] (A lot of missing toes there!) But there are less obvious health risks. The force with which a rotary motor mower ejects debris can 'aerosolize' bacteria making it airborne and easy to breathe in. In the US in 2000 a fatal outbreak of Pneumonic Tularemia was attributed to bacteria being spread by lawn mowers. [NEJM]
The noise from these things is beyond health and safety limits. 'A typical gas-powered mower offers prolonged exposure to 90 decibels. Sounds in excess of 85 decibels can damage hearing, but noise at only 65 to 75 decibels can cause hypertension, stress, heart damage and depression.' [Washington Post]
Typically, the size of lawns around an urban house is only around 100 square metres or so. Using a non-motorised, non-polluting, inexpensive reel mower is not really all that difficult in the average back yard. So come on guys, give your neighbours some peace, eliminate a health risk and help save the planet. Get Reel!
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