USD Golf Carts Polluting Campus

Environmental activists can stop focusing all their attention on SUV and Hummers with a new study that has just been released from the University of San Diego. Students enrolled in the Environmental Chemistry course offered by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry conducted a mock smog test on a range of vehicles that covered simple four-door cars like a Kia Rio and larger gas-guzzlers like a Dodge Durango. The students were on the hunt for the levels of NOx and particulate pollution emitted from the exhaust pipe.

It might come as a surprise to some that big polluters come in small packages! The smallest of the vehicles tested, a USD Golf Cart, destroyed the pollution competition, beating out a 1993 Mercury Village, 1998 Dodge Durango, 2005 Kia Rio, 2007 Buick Rainier V8 CXL, and a 2010 Volkswagen Golf. The golf cart emitted 239.425 ppm of NOx after the engine was warm, which is typically when the level of pollutants in vehicular exhaust is depleted. The Dodge Durango took the silver medal with 155.410 ppm – a good 80 ppm behind the golf cart! To make matters even worse, the golf cart was also found to be producing over 16 million tiny particulates per centimeter cubed of air. That is substantially more particulates than any other vehicle analyzed.

Data collected while the car engines were cold and then after the engines warmed showed a clear decline in pollutants the longer the engine was allowed to run. This finding stresses the importance of catalytic converters as environmental housekeepers. When the engine is first ignited, the catalytic converter is not fully functional and thus, large quantities of pollutants are detectable. Once the engine has heated, the converter kicks into action, reducing toxic emissions by a noticeable amount in each vehicle. Surprisingly, it was the 2005 Kia Rio that showed the largest improvement in toxic emission concentrations, not the newest vehicle of the cars selected. That just goes to show that newer doesn't necessarily mean better.

The picture below depicts Dr. David De Haan and students Donald Millar and Hadley Krizner taking samples of the exhaust being emitted by the 1998 Dodge Durango.


Dr. David De Haan, the senior scientist on the project, remarked that he was not surprised by the results since he has had plenty of experience riding his bike through the nasty smelling exhaust of a campus golf cart. Junior chemistry major, Alyssa Navapanich, found the results from her Dodge Durango to also be expected, but found it “really shocking that all those golf carts on campus are emitting that much pollution.” She went on to say that she would have hoped her tuition would have been put to more environmentally sound vehicle purchases by the university.

The study also revealed that car pollution is not USD’s only problem. In fact, cigars and cigarettes emit nearly 100 times more NOx than even the golf cart! NOx and particulate pollution are well known causes for a variety of respiratory irritation that range from difficulty breathing to damaged lung tissue. They are also key components in photochemical smog, which Southern Californians in the Los Angeles County area are very familiar with. So, the next time you see a student smoking or pass by a golf cart rolling its way through campus, you may want to consider the health risks.