Lawn Mowers

Now that EPA officials have targeted lawn mowers, can it be said they are finally on the cutting edge of a solution to the pollution problem? SHERMAN GRIMES Harbor City

It's time to ride, but Octavio Orduño, stubborn as ever, won't put on his glasses. His wife, Alicia, insists: "But you can't see without them. " "No," he tells her. "I don't want to. " Then he starts to head off, on his way. If it were up to Orduño, he would still be cruising the streets of Long Beach on a two-wheeler. But a few years back, Alicia insisted he add another wheel and get a tricycle. After all, he was 100 and beginning to lose his balance. He turns 103 on Monday, so he's probably the oldest cyclist in Long Beach.

About 167,000 lawn mowers made by American Honda Motor Corp. were recalled because the cutting blades could rotate when the control lever is released. The recall involves lawn mowers with model numbers HRB217HXA, HRX217HXA and HRX217HMA, which were sold by Honda lawn and garden dealers and at Home Depot stores from January 2003 to November 2007. For more details, call (800) 426-7701 or go to www.hondapowerequipment .com or www.cpsc.gov. About 160,000 First Years 3-in-1 Flush and Sounds Potty Seats, distributed by RC2 Corp.

About 167,000 lawn mowers made by American Honda Motor Corp. were recalled because the cutting blades could rotate when the control lever is released. The recall involves lawn mowers with model numbers HRB217HXA, HRX217HXA and HRX217HMA, which were sold by Honda lawn and garden dealers and at Home Depot stores from January 2003 to November 2007. For more details, call (800) 426-7701 or go to www.hondapowerequipment .com or www.cpsc.gov. About 160,000 First Years 3-in-1 Flush and Sounds Potty Seats, distributed by RC2 Corp.

It's hard to believe the first lawn mowers were designed in the 1830s in England. The mower, patented by Edwin Board Budding, had curved blades in a cutting cylinder that is still the basic idea of a mower. The earliest mowers were made of wrought iron and were either pushed with a long handle or pulled by a horse. Then, as now, it was best to cut the grass when it was dry to avoid ruts or grass sticking to the blades.

No matter how smoothly your lawn mower hums this summer, eventually the day will come when it coughs and sputters its way to the garbage heap. But is that an environmentally responsible way to discard it? The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute suggests five ways to handle the disposal dilemma. First, decide if the machine can still be used or has some value. Then, choose the most appropriate method for disposal: * Donate it.

A man was riding his lawn mower when it exploded, killing him and his dog and hurling pieces of the mower over the roof of his house. James Larry McAnnally was killed instantly when the 11-horsepower mower exploded Monday. His age was not available. Investigators for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms joined an investigation of the death Tuesday. McAnnally had not started cutting his grass but had driven a short distance across his backyard when the lawn mower exploded.

A fire that burned 100 acres of brush Thursday apparently started when a road construction worker struck a rock with a lawn mower, sending sparks onto dry grass, authorities said. The fire was controlled more than two hours later by a brigade of 150 firefighters, five helicopters and three water-dropping planes, said Capt. Scott Brown, spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority. No injuries were reported and no homes were affected.

A man was charged with drunken driving after riding a lawn mower into the path of a freight train, police said. Michael Runyon had used the 5-horsepower riding mower for transportation after his license was suspended for drunken driving five years ago, said Detective Joe Cervantez. "I don't know how he survived," said Dale VanDusen, who witnessed the wreck last week. "It's a miracle."

Lawn mower racing, a sport developed by and for a suburban lunatic fringe in England, may be catching on in America. Can corporate sponsorship be far behind? Don't look now. In Chicago, the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Assn. has been formed as the official sanctioning body for this "little-known yet exciting sport." Its inaugural event, with a budget of more than $100,000, will be the Sta-Bil National Lawn Mower Racing Championships, to be held Sept. 5 at a fairgrounds in Grayslake, Ill.

The owner of a remote lodge in Talkeetna died of exposure after his lawnmower overturned and trapped him, authorities said. A neighbor found the body of Andrew Piekarski, 61. Investigators determined that Piekarski drove off a small hill, and the lawnmower landed on his legs. "He couldn't get out from under it and he died from exposure," Alaska State Troopers spokesman Greg Wilkinson said.

IT belongs in the Smithsonian Institution, but the old relic instead sits in the middle of Ruth Ingels' living room at her Leisure World home, making occasional side trips to the kitchen whenever it's time to vacuum. It is believed to be the first go-kart ever built, before the little car powered by a West Bend lawn mower engine was even known as a go-kart. It was the brainchild of Art Ingels, Ruth's husband, in 1956.

EVERY city has its soundtrack. Venice has the slapping of water against stone, New York has car horns, Madrid has the vroom of mopeds. Here in our green, green city, one sound dominates life. No matter where you are, Bel-Air or Bellflower, you hear it intermittently from 7 a.m. to nightfall. It's there on Christmas, on the Fourth of July, on Halloween and Thanksgiving, and every day in between. It's the lawn mower. If you want to buy one, read on.

California rules to reduce small-engine pollution could take effect as planned under a deal Thursday between Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Christopher S. "Kit" Bond (R-Mo). Bond had proposed bill language that California officials feared would indefinitely delay plans to cut pollution produced by such small-engine machines as leaf blowers and lawnmowers.

They came to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine as early as 1 a.m. Saturday, prepared to wait for hours in a line more than 1,000 cars long. Not for Prince, U2 or Beyonce. Under a program sponsored by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, they came to exchange their noisy, fume-spewing, gasoline-powered lawnmowers for quiet, environmentally sensitive, cordless electric models worth $400.

California would be able to impose tougher anti-pollution rules on small engines used in machines such as lawn mowers, leaf blowers and chain saws under a congressional agreement announced Saturday. The agreement between Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) ensures that California, with its distinctive smog problem, would still have a special exemption under the federal Clean Air Act to impose tougher rules for the small gasoline engines sold in the state.

The roar of lawn mowers could be replaced with the hum of fume-free, electric replacements under a novel smog-fighting program approved Friday by the Southland's air quality board. Under the new rule, companies can buy and scrap homeowners' gasoline-powered lawn mowers and other garden equipment in the four-county Los Angeles region in exchange for credits toward meeting smog regulations. Consumers own more than 1.

It started as the routine recovery of a stolen truck, but when police stepped into the back yard of the house in Canoga Park, they found a garage stockpiled with lawn mowers, edgers and other equipment believed to be stolen from landscapers. On Friday, as they were still sorting through all the equipment, detectives said they had broken up a ring they believed preyed on professional landscapers by following them home from jobs and stealing their trucks and equipment as they slept.

"Air Board Cracks Down on Lawn Mowers, Diesel Trucks" (Sept. 26) raises a question about statistical accuracy. I own a lawn mower, one of 14 million in use in California, according to the California Air Resources Board. The board goes on to state that these small-engine machines emit "152 tons of smog-forming fumes daily." I use my mower about twice a month during the summer, less in the winter. Is the board suggesting all 14 million mowers are used daily? And, just how does it weigh the fumes?

The California Air Resources Board adopted new regulations Thursday to curb pollution from lawn mowers, chain saws and leaf blowers, setting the stage for a showdown with Congress over regulatory authority. The Air Resources Board also adopted a regulation that would make California the first state to require retrofitting of garbage trucks to eliminate soot from diesel exhaust.