This electric vehicle is wiping out air pollution in arenas | 24CA News
Swapping gas-powered autos for electrical is essential to combating local weather change. But Health Canada can also be touting the flexibility of 1 specific EV to curb indoor air air pollution in locations the place kids and adults play and train: electrical ice resurfacers.
In Canada, most area ice resurfacers corresponding to Zambonis are powered by pure gasoline or propane.
Burning these fuels can generate indoor air pollution corresponding to carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide — the identical ones produced by gasoline stoves, sparking issues about indoor air air pollution in individuals’s houses.
Health impacts of area air pollution
With indoor arenas, circumstances have popped up within the news the place rinks have needed to be shut down, and generally dozens of individuals have been despatched to hospital because of excessive ranges of carbon monoxide, which might trigger acute poisoning and be lethal.
There have additionally been clusters of pollution-induced sickness linked to nitrogen oxides, together with one in British Columbia in 2019. Nitrogen oxides could cause respiratory irritation and respiratory difficulties, however the results will not be all the time instant and could be delayed by a day or two.
Nitrogen oxides are additionally recognized to set off bronchial asthma, which is frequent amongst ice hockey gamers. Researchers suspect that is exacerbated by a mixture of chilly air and indoor air pollution throughout intensive coaching.
Typically, clusters of sickness linked to arenas have been blamed on a mixture of malfunctioning ice resurfacers and insufficient air flow in lots of older services. To make issues worse, chilly air sinks, so polluted air tends to stay near the ice floor, even when there may be air flow — an issue highlighted by COVID-19 outbreaks linked to arenas.
Aaron Wilson, a scientific evaluator with Health Canada’s indoor air contaminant evaluation part, stated some years again, he seen native officers had been typically asking for recommendation about how greatest to forestall, detect and repair air-quality points in native arenas.
“We quickly realized there wasn’t a whole lot of information,” he stated. There wasn’t even knowledge on what typical air pollution ranges had been inside ice arenas and what degree of air flow was wanted.
What researchers discovered about air high quality in arenas
From 2017 to 2020, Health Canada, together with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, performed a research to search out out. They monitored carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides at 16 arenas in Ottawa and northeastern Saskatchewan.
The good news? Carbon monoxide ranges had been usually inside Health Canada pointers.
However, nitrogen oxides exceeded Health Canada’s short-term publicity restrict at the least a few of the time at seven out of 16 arenas that had been monitored.
Those pollution amassed all through the day with repeated ice resurfacing, peaking within the night. And they had been by no means utterly cleared out by the air flow system in a single day. Wilson stated that meant nitrogen oxide ranges might be as much as 4 occasions the extent outdoors in the beginning of the day — “before they even do one resurfacing of the arena.”
Ventilation vs. electrical ice resurfacers
The researchers tried a lot of totally different methods to take away the air pollution.
Wilson stated air flow was efficient in sure kinds of arenas however not others. Extra air flow additionally generally made the constructing uncomfortably chilly for individuals within the area, corresponding to spectators, and will enhance heating prices.
But one resolution was extraordinarily efficient: Replacing gas-powered ice resurfacers with electrical kind of eradicated the indoor air air pollution, Health Canada discovered.
Even at a rink that had nitrogen oxide ranges above well being pointers a number of occasions, that resolution introduced them at or beneath ranges open air, Wilson stated.
In 2021, based mostly on the research, Health Canada issued pointers for enhancing air high quality in arenas. Using electrical resurfacers and edgers to take care of the ice, with a purpose to get rid of the principle sources of pollution, was its prime suggestion.
“In the long run, I think that’s the solution to air pollution inside ice rinks,” Wilson stated.
Climate change motivates electrical transition
Electric ice resurfacers have truly existed for many years — Zamboni launched its first mannequin on the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif., however did not begin promoting a business battery-powered mannequin till 1978.
Today, a number of manufacturers of electrical ice resurfacers, together with electrical edgers for smoothing the edges of the rink, can be found in Canada.
Steve Kovacevic is basic supervisor of Elmira, Ont.-based Resurfice, which gives each lead-acid and lithium ion battery electrical fashions.
While its fossil gasoline choices, that are nonetheless cheaper, was once extra in style, he stated he is seen that now when communities challenge tenders in search of new ice resurfacers, “they are looking to switch to electric machines — there’s no doubt about that.”
The Zamboni model alone has 400 electrical machines throughout the nation, based on Greg Dean, the corporate’s vice-president of gross sales and model administration. The largest fleet up to now is in Montreal, with 31, adopted by Strathcona County, Alta., with 13 and London, Ont., with 12.
“There has been a strong uptick in interest in electric equipment,” he stated in an e mail.
Some provinces, corresponding to Alberta and B.C., supply local weather change mitigation funding to assist offset the upper up-front value of electrical machines, and it seems to have made a distinction.
Terry Piche, director of coaching, analysis and growth on the Ontario Recreation Facilities Association, stated his province has additionally seen a shift towards electrical during the last 15 years. Now, he estimates 1 / 4 of the roughly 1,000 indoor rinks in Ontario are being serviced by electrical ice resurfacers — and the quantity is rising annually.
While electrical fashions are dearer than fossil gasoline variations (about $50,000 extra per machine), his group estimates that because of decrease gasoline and upkeep prices, arenas find yourself breaking even after eight years.
WATCH | Electric resurfacers hit the ice to forestall poisonous fumes
Ice resurfacers (aka Zambonis) sometimes run on diesel or propane and may spew doubtlessly unsafe ranges of nitrogen oxides in ice rinks. Now, new know-how helps them go electrical and clear the air.
Does it make a distinction for customers?
Climate change is the highest motive communities cite for making the change, and the well being co-benefits aren’t normally prime of thoughts — though some communities do point out security advantages and lowering the pressure on air flow programs.
Mississauga, Ont., is one metropolis midway by its transition to switch all 22 of its ice resurfacers with electrical ones.
Shari Lichterman, Mississauga’s performing metropolis supervisor, stated it is a part of the municipality’s local weather motion plan, which incorporates electrification of your entire municipal fleet, from buses to mowers.
Lichterman, who can also be chair of Parks and Recreation Ontario, stated air high quality hasn’t been a big concern in her metropolis’s arenas because of monitoring and air flow programs, though it may be at arenas in different communities.
“But to the extent that we can even eliminate that concern at all,” she stated, “of course we want to do that.”
Still, clear area air is one thing that customers discover and admire. On a current weekday afternoon, a bunch of gamers with the Mississauga Chargers junior hockey group practised on the metropolis’s Port Credit Memorial Arena on ice newly smoothed by the rink’s electrical Zamboni.
Head coach Joe Washkurak stated that many years in the past, within the previous arenas the place he first began taking part in hockey, “you could always smell the propane from the old Zambonis, and that wasn’t a very good hockey rink smell.” He additionally recollects video games postponed due to gasoline leaks.
These days, he stated, the ambiance within the area is extra nice for practising. “No pun intended, but it’s a breath of fresh air.”
