Regulations now being developed by the EPA in the US and EC in Canada will bring cleaner lawn and garden equipment to market within a few years. The Off-Road Small Spark-Ignition Engine Emission Regulations establish emission standards for small spark-ignition engines rated up to 19 kW (25 hp) typically found in gasoline-fuelled lawn and garden machines, hedge trimmers, brush cutters, lawnmowers, garden tractors, snow blowers, etc. and in light-duty machines such as chainsaws, log splitters, shredders, etc.

EPA has finalized a new emission control program to reduce hydrocarbon emissions from small spark-ignition engines by about 35 percent. The new exhaust emissions standards will take effect in 2011 or 2012, depending on the size of the engine. The final rule also includes new standards to reduce evaporative emissions from these fuel systems. These standards will reduce the harmful health effects of ozone and carbon monoxide from these engines.

It is estimated that by 2030, the new standards will result in significant annual reductions of pollutant emissions from regulated engine and equipment sources nationwide, including approximately 600,000 tons of volatile organic hydrocarbon emissions, 130,000 tons of NOx emissions, and 5,500 tons of direct particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions. These reductions correspond to significant reductions in the formation of ground-level ozone and ambient PM2.5. It is also expected that there will result annual reductions of 1.5 million tons of carbon monoxide emissions, with the greatest reductions in situations where there have been problems with individual exposures.

This rule will result in substantial benefits to public health and welfare and the environment. It is further estimated that by 2030, on an annual basis, these emission reductions will prevent 230 PM-related premature deaths, between 77 and 350 ozone-related premature deaths, approximately 1,700 hospitalizations and emergency room visits, 23,000 work days lost, 180,000 lost school days, 590,000 acute respiratory symptoms, and other quantifiable benefits every year. The total estimated annual benefits of this rule in 2030 are approximately between $1.6 and $4.4 billion. Estimated costs in 2030 are many times less, at approximately $190 million.

For more information, simply search the Small Spark Engine Regulations online for consumer information, regulations, guidance, and compliance and certification data for ten categories of nonroad spark-ignition engines, ranging from lawn and garden equipment through airport service equipment. Meanwhile, consumers can make a difference by adopting practices that will help protect the environment now and in the future. Now you can find the amount of emissions from your lawn mower or snow blower by clicking on to the emission calculator at www.toolworlddirect.com

There are varieties of cordless tools used for garden chores. These range from hedge trimmers to lawn mowers. These use batteries to run the engine thus saving fuel costs. With advance of technology, some of these tools use solar energy to run the engine. This saves the owner many expenses thus minimizing costs. Solar powered tools are also environmental friendly because of minimal environmental pollution.

Unlike tools with chords, cordless tools pose less falling risks thus are safer to use. While using tools with cords, there is a high tendency of slicing the cord while working with it. Another advantage of using cordless tools is freedom of moving around with no cord limitation. Use of tools with cords is cumbersome due to cord restrictions. An example includes a cordless hedge trimmer. This tool is used to trim hedges to produce neat shapes. It has a battery as an electricity source.

Modern hedge trimmer use solar energy thus is easy to carry due to its lightweight. One need not use fuel and oil therefore; it is hygienic to use. It also produces less toxic gases in to the air. This reduces aspect of global worming as well as depletion of the ozone layer. Another cordless garden tool includes the lawn mower. Different types of mowers exist to cater for variety of applications. There are mowers ideal for small lawns while others are ideal for large sized fields.

Contemporary types of mower include the cordless electric mower. This model lacks a cord thus is safe to use to minimized falls. It uses a battery thus is heavy to push up hill. This explains why it is ideal for flat lawns and fields approximating 1/3 acre. An advantage of cordless mower is ability to charge the battery after sixteen hours intervals of use. Cordless mowers need have automatic tune-mechanism thus; one need not worry hiring a technician to tune up the machine. This saves one’s money.

For positive results, one should mow lawns with short grass to avoid straining the battery. This saves one from charging expenses. To avoid tall grass limitation, one should mow frequently. In the modern days of environmental maintenance, cordless mowers fit well as environmental conservers to their minimal toxic gas release. Compared to mowers that use fuel, they release minute amount of carbon dioxide as well as carbon monoxide to the environment. These gases contribute in global warming because they cover the earth’s atmosphere causing increased temperatures that result to global warming. These gases are also responsible for depletion of Ozone layer, which protects the earth from harmful sunrays.

Cordless mowers are ideal to use in a neighborhood due to the less extent of noise produced. This protects people from noise pollution, which is a common characteristic of gasoline mowers. On comparison with other mowers, cordless mowers are ideal due to low maintenance costs. On average, cordless mower uses $3to $4 per year on electricity bills on battery charging while a usual mower uses approximately $29 to $30 annually on gasoline. Due to benefits associated with cordless garden tools, people should use them to save money as well as the environment. More information with access to the largest online selection of cordless lawn and garden tools can be found at www.toolworlddirect.com.

What you should look for when buying a lawn mower for your backyard and the pros and cons of different types of mowers. Lawn mowers are available in an ever expanding selection, but there are a few things that will determine what mower you should buy. The size of your garden, ongoing costs, ease of use, and environmental and safety concerns are all things to consider when you’re looking at lawn mowers.

A major consideration when buying a mower is how easy it is to start. Electric mowers are relatively hassle free - a simple switch - however petrol mowers have a variety of mechanisms with different claims to ease of use. The most common and traditional type is a ripcord which pulls the motor into life. This can be back-breaking and frustrating on some models, however moving the cord up the handlebar can be even more awkward. Always test the ignition yourself before you buy to make sure you’ll have no problems starting the motor yourself.

Blades - Look for blades made from a strong material such as hardened steel. They will cut cleaner and last longer. Also, look for a mower with a four-blade system, to ensure it can cut through thicker grass. The width of the cutting area is important. A good petrol mower will be able to cut right to the edge of the unit, but electric mowers generally have a smaller ‘cutting deck’ – the circle within which the blades spin. This means it takes longer to mow the lawn, and there’s more twisting and turning involved.

Collection Bag- A catcher is often not standard equipment on a mower, but if you want to avoid having to rake up the grass, you’ll want one. Look for one with properly located handles that make it easy to detach, hoist up, and empty into a bin.

Mulch Mower- Some mowers are able to process cut grass into mulch that is then spread over your lawn. This is a great option that lets you nourish your grass while you mow it.

Cutting height- The more height settings, the more freedom you’ll have to work with rough terrain and patchy or regenerating grass. Electric mowers generally have less flexibility and are harder to raise and lower than petrol models. Test out the adjustment for yourself, and see if it’s easy to do before you buy.

Handles- Handles should not be underestimated. Height-adjustable handles allow for better comfort, but at a minimum your handles should be able to fold over for more compact storage. Upswept handles have a curve in them to allow for better ergonomics and easier pushing.

If you still need help to select the right mower, please click on our LIVE CHAT button at www.toolworlddirect.com.

Now that spring is here, it’s time to drag out the lawn mower for another season. If you’re tired of that noisy and smelly gas-powered mower, then maybe it’s time you discovered cordless, battery-powered mowers. Clean, quiet and easy to start, they require no gas, oil changes or spark plugs. The battery takes the extension cord out of the mower equation, and starting is gentler on your back than yanking a starter cord.

Cordless, battery-powered mowers vary in sizes and performance.

No Noise

Electric mowers are much easier on your ears compared to their gas counterparts. The average electric mower makes no more noise than a washing machine (about 75 decibels), while a gas-powered lawn mower can make as much noise as a motorcycle (about 95 decibels). Noise pollution is a real problem with gas mowers, as any late sleeper on a Saturday morning knows. But they can be more than a nuisance for those who use them. Loud noise can contribute to hearing loss when it exceeds 85 decibels, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. A gas-powered mower producing 95 decibels should be used no more than an hour a day, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Switching to an electric mower will ease the stress on your ears and your neighbors.

Environmental Benefits

Besides giving your eardrums a break, battery-powered mowers offer a compelling environmental benefit — they pollute much less than gas-powered mowers. Gas lawn mower manufacturers are designing more efficient engines to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new emission standards for lawn-and-garden equipment, but many lawn mowers predate these new standards. Even new gas mowers that meet the EPA standards still spew a higher percentage of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) into the air than automobiles. According to a 2003 EPA report, lawn-and-garden equipment accounts for 5 percent of all ozone-forming emissions. The same report concludes that one hour of lawn mower usage produces as much air pollution as driving a car 20 miles.

Emissions and spills from gas containers and tanks also contribute to soil and air pollution. According to the California Air Resources Board, portable gas containers account for about 87 tons per day of smog-forming reactive organic gasses in California alone, which are equal to the heat-trapping emissions from about 1 million cars. California already has standards governing the containers that release these emissions, but they remain unregulated at the federal level. For the largest online selection of push cylinder, battery powered and electrically powered lawn mowers, click on www.toolworlddirect.com.

Small Engine Garden Tools are Big Polluters - Most people do not associate air pollution with mowing the lawn. Yet emissions from lawn mowers, snow blowers, chain saws, leaf vacuums, and similar outdoor power equipment are a significant source of pollution. Today’s small engines emit high levels of carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless, poisonous gas. They also emit hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, pollutants that contribute to the formation of ozone. Emission controls for small gasoline engines has not been a crucial design consideration until now. Small engines are big polluters and power equipment users inadvertently contribute to the problem by carelessly handling fuel and improperly maintaining their equipment.

Pollution Prevention in Your Own Backyard- EPA anticipates that new regulations now being developed will bring cleaner lawn and garden equipment to market within a few years. Meanwhile, consumers can make a difference by adopting practices that will help protect the environment now and in the future:

Consider cleaner manual and battery powered options.

Propane and solar options are also available for some types of equipment. Electric and battery powered equipment is cleaner than equipment powered by gasoline engines. Electrically-powered lawn and garden tools produce essentially no pollution from exhaust emissions or through fuel evaporation.

Use manual hand powered tools

Tools that don’t require electric or gasoline engines are especially handy for small yards or small jobs. Hand tools are available to meet a wide variety of lawn and garden needs, like lightweight, quiet, easy-to-use reel push mowers that generate no emissions.

Reduce mowing pollution

Use low-maintenance turf grasses or grass/flower seed mixtures that grow slowly and require less mowing. Check with your local agricultural extension service or lawn and garden center about what is appropriate for your region. Decrease lawn mower noise and air pollution with a battery power mower or choose from a large selection of robotic battery powered mowers. Plant additional trees and shrubs to reduce the energy costs of heating and cooling your house and to provide landscaping for wildlife. Native wildflowers and plants require little to no maintenance after planting.

Recycle old equipment

Instead of selling or giving away your old lawn and garden power tools, take them to a recycling center where they can be converted into raw material for use in cleaner equipment and other products.

By combining these strategies, you can reduce your personal contribution to pollution. In addition, your yard equipment will last longer and you will save money. For more information and access to the largest single source of hand and battery powered green garden and lawn care tools, click on www.toolworlddirect.com.

For many Americans, gardening is the most joyful activity of summer. But if you love to garden and you also suffer from back pain, you know that you can cause yourself a lot of grief unless you follow some basic ergonomic principles.

Gardening, of course, is a seasonal activity. During the off season, few of us make much use of the muscle groups we employ for typical gardening activities. It is important to warm up and stretch your muscles before you dig. Here’s a tip - the easiest way to warm up your muscles is to take a hot shower BEFORE you garden. This is called a passive warm-up. You’ll still need to stretch, but you can do this in the garden. Use the same motions you use when weeding, raking, digging, etc. - whatever your planned tasks - but do them slowly, holding each stretch for about 10 seconds.

It’s also important to do some gentle stretching after you garden, especially if you’ve overdone it and your muscles feel tight. Another hot shower can help as well. Another rule: Go slow! When the weather breaks, it’s tempting to turn over ALL the earth on the first afternoon. Trouble is, by the time your backaches, you’ve already done too much. By pacing yourself, you can ensure that your back will be fit enough to garden again next weekend!

A third principle to keep in mind is that a change is as good as a rest. Vary your activities rather than doing all your weeding, for instance, at once. In other words, shovel for a few minutes, dump, rake, weed. Rest for a while, and then repeat.

Avoid staying in any one position for too long. Gardening involves bending, kneeling, standing, walking, and reaching; don’t spend more than 15 minutes in any one of these positions before changing to something else.

Also, don’t mix and match activities with positions. If you’re crouching down to weed, don’t suddenly reach up and stretch to snip at a stray vine. Don’t bend forward with your knees straight. And as in any activity, try not to lift and twist at the same time. Remember to hold heavy objects close to your body. So what if they’re muddy - getting dirty is part and parcel of gardening’s charm.

Finally, organize your tool shed so that heavy supplies are stored at waist level. Invest in some back-friendly tools like a kneeling bench with handles, shears, shovels and weeders with long handles to minimize bending, an angled rake, and a swan-necked watering can.

If you keep this advice in mind and select the correct tools, there’s no reason for back pain to keep you out of your garden. Check out the new EasyTOOL designs from garden Power Corporation at www.toolworlddirect.com. All tools are designed to be used from a relaxed healthy standing position.

Gardeners making their way to the garden centers will notice the growing and endless array of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, all commonly referred to as pesticides. Already more than 80 communities have passed bylaws restricting or prohibiting use of pesticides for cosmetic reasons within their boundaries. Research seems to support that as goes the health of our earth, so goes the health of our children. The Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) released a comprehensive review of research on the effects of pesticides on human health which the review showed many studies had found associations between pesticide exposure and solid tumors including prostate, brain, kidney and pancreatic cancer among others such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Also according to the review, “the implication of pesticides in the development of leukemia warrants further investigation. Since many urbanites use pesticides in their personal lawn and garden spaces at concentration levels between five and 10 times used in agriculture, the implications are dire. These applications can add up to a significant impact since urban homeowners use more pesticides per acre than farmers do, according to Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S.

So how do we actually “just say no� to pesticides? First, getting your lawn off grass is the single most important change you can make to manage weeds in our dry climate and not incidentally, significant reduce water use and get off the addictive cycle of chemical dependence. Plant perennials, trees, shrubs, wildflowers, native species and spread mulch along the borders take the place of rambling lawns and gardens. Weeds thrive in unhealthy soil, so make sure yours is healthy by fertilizing naturally with manure and compost. Over-seed the lawn with a recommended grass mixture. This creates a more dense, drought – and disease-resistant lawn that crowds out weeds. Keep your lawn a bit longer to discourage weeds and reduce watering needs. Mow high, seven centimeters or three inches, and leave your grass clippings on the lawn to return nutrients to the soil.

A typical garden hoe removes shallow-rooted annual weeds, but cuts off deep-rooted perennials which will continue to grow and are best removed using a specialized weeding tool or chemicals if you are so inclined. Hoeing improves drainage, aeration, and nutrient dispersal and helps condition your soil. A new weed removal tool design from Garden Power Corporation attaches to a common household drill. The Twist’N Rip augers to into the soil to remove the perennial weed with root in most applications to reduce the likelihood of the weed regenerating from the same root.

This inexpensive line of garden tools are designed to reduce the effort and strain of weeding, plant and tilling your garden. Designed to be used manually or as an attachment to the common household drill, you can weed larger areas faster with less physical effort, thereby reducing your dependency on chemicals. Check out the EasyTOOLâ„¢ line of new innovative garden tools from Garden Power Corporation at www.garden-power.com.

Here are several tips on how to get the most out of a single charge of the batteries in a battery powered electric lawn mower . Most of these are related to any electric battery mower where the batteries are charged by plugging the battery charger into an electrical outlet:

1. Make Sure The Batteries Are Fully Charged

Battery chargers have a light indicator which will go from red to green to indicate when a battery / batteries are fully charged. If you want the electric mower to go as along as possible before the juice in the batteries is fully used, only use the mower when the batteries are fully charged.

2. Raise The Mower Height

Experts agree that it is healthier for the lawn to cut the grass at around 3 inches or so. The higher the grass, the more moisture that will be retained in the ground. So, simply raise the height of your mower.

3. Mow the Lawn More Frequently

The more frequent you mow the lawn the shorter the grass will be when it is mowed which in turn will cause the mower to work less hard. Especially with the constant rain that some parts of North America, the grass is growing very, very fast. So, don’t mow your lawn only on Friday evenings or Saturday afternoons per a usual summer. Mow twice a week.

4. Do Not Use the Optional Mulching Blade

The mulching blade can use more power from the batteries. And, it’s not really the optional mulching blade itself; rather, it would be the containment of the blades of grass staying inside the mower base making the engine use more power. Compare this to when a mower is not used in mulch mode but when the bagging option is used or when the grass leaves the mower as soon as it is cut to the side or rear of the mower.

5. Avoid Early Morning Mowing

For lawn mowers using batteries, it is a good rule to not mow the lawn in the morning at all since over night, dew forms on the grass. Mowing the lawn when the grass is wet, either from the morning dew or from a recent rain storm makes the mower work harder, consuming more energy. If you wait until after all of the morning dew has evaporated from the grass, it will be easier to mow, take less of an effort from the mower and thus allow the batteries to run longer in a single mow.

6. Self-Propelled Feature

Any mower that is self propelled requires more energy. In the case of an electric lawn mower, that energy is from the batteries. So, simply stop using the self propelled feature will reduce the amount of battery energy consumed. You will get a better workout than if you used the self-propelled feature. To learn more about battery and electrically powered lawn mower, click on to www.toolworlddirect.com.