[9-22]Scientists say the pollution by a single HAMBURGER is more than a TRUCK single, quantity

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Anyone looking to cut out air pollution in their town may have to look no further than their local burger joint.

A new study out of the University of California, Riverside, has found that commercial charbroilers – like the ones used in the country's fast food restaurants, are doing more harm to the air quality than an 18-wheeler.

Researchers claim that the charbroilers send a staggering quantity of particulate matter into the ecosystem, more than any truck or factory smokestack.

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Pollution on a sesame seed bun: Researchers claim that the charbroil grills that prepare hamburgers could be sending an incredible quantity of particulate matter into the air

Residents in a South Boston community believe those claims, and insist that they’re being smoked out of their own homes thanks to a new burger place in the neighborhood.

Marie Madden, who lives across the street from the new Tasty Burger restaurant, told the Boston Globe: 'It's just horrible. The smoke was just pouring out of the stack Saturday.'

Burned: Emissions from commercial charbroilers, like the one seen here, are a very significant uncontrolled source of particulate matter, according to researchers

At a community meeting on Monday, restaurant owner David DuBois pledged to set up a high-tech air-scrubbing system that will block the smoke, according to the Globe.

He told the paper: 'It [the system] takes out the particulate and from what I understand it will take the odor out and most of the smoke, if not all of it.

'At the end of the day I believe this solution will solve the problem in a big way.'

Trouble with trucks: An 18-wheeler diesel-engine truck would have to drive 143 miles on the freeway to put out the same mass of particles as a single hamburger patty, according to the UC Riverside study