Washington, D.C. - According to a study commissioned by the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF), the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed new emissions standards regulating highway motorcycles "ignore the issue of rider safety."

"None of the major EPA documents that discuss the proposed standards even make a single mention of either 'rider safety' or 'consumer safety,'" observed Garrett A. Vaughn, Ph.D., author of the study. "The EPA's analysis shows remarkable little evidence that the Agency has made any serious effort to meet its obligation under the Clean Air Act to consider 'potential impacts on safety.'" Dr. Vaughn cites burn hazards to riders, passengers and passersby, particularly children.

In its public comment on the EPA proposal, the MRF expanded on the danger of heat-induced rider fatigue. "...[M]otorcycles equipped with catalytic converters...impose the threat of heat injuries (e.g., heat stress, heat stroke) and may increase injuries and fatalities due to rider fatigue and particularly the loss of faculties and impaired judgment symptomatic of heat injuries."

For example, the catalyzer aboard one particular 2003 European superbike is nested with the exhaust system beneath the saddle. After only a two-minute idle on a 70-degree day, an infrared thermometer registered 140 degrees when pointed at the top of the heat shield adjacent to the saddle, according to Cycle World Magazine's January 2003 issue. And according to some of the manufacturers the MRF has consulted, the core temperatures in catalytic converters on motorcycles can exceed 1500 degrees. Pipes and adjacent materials can remain dangerously hot for several hours after turning off the engine.

The MRF's public comments to the EPA regarding these proposed rules continued to address this important life-threatening issue, stating, "There will be a human cost to equipping motorcycles with catalyzers, and that cost will be measured in injuries and fatalities."

The Vaughn study was paid for solely with emergency contributions to the MRF by individual motorcyclists and State Motorcyclists' Rights Organizations nationwide, and is available in its entirety in pdf format on the MRF's website at www.mrf.org. The Motorcycle Riders Foundation is the only membership-based national motorcyclists' rights organization headquartered in Washington DC devoted exclusively to the street rider.