Diamond Bar, CA - Southern California fast-food restaurants will be required to filter emissions from chain-driven charbroilers under a measure approved by the region's air quality agency.
About 800 restaurants in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino counties _ including Burger King and Carl's Jr. _ use the charbroilers to pass meat through a flame on a chain-driven conveyor, causing a type of pollution linked to respiratory infections and asthma.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District adopted the rule in a unanimous vote today and gave restaurants two years to install the devices, called catalysts, in hopes of cutting emissions by up to 90 percent.
AQMD spokesman Bill Kelly says there was no controversy over the decision. He says, "This technology is pretty affordable and they all seem to recognize the need to control the emissions. We're taking a pretty reasonable approach."
AQMD says it is working closely with the California Restaurant Association to reduce the 11.6 tons of fine particulate pollution discharged daily by the 31,000 restaurants in the agency's district.
About 250 restaurants worldwide already use the catalysts, which are installed at the base of the charbroiler's exhaust stack.
High cooking temperatures allow the catalyst to convert particulate and hydorcarbon emissions into carbon dioxide and water.
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