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Ban gas powered leaf blowers


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2020 Jul 14, 9:55am   1,325 views  25 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

https://nonoise.org/quietnet/zap/ten.htm

Top Ten Reasons Leaf Blowers Should be Banned

Leaf Blowers Are Hazardous to Your Health.Here’s 10 reasons why these ozone offenders should be banned.

1.Air Pollution. A gasoline-powered leaf blower generates as much tailpipe emissions in one hour as an automobile does over 350 miles. The difference is that a car emits all that pollution over a big stretch of road, while a leaf blower deposits it all in one back or front yard.

2.Dangerous chemicals. Leaf blowers spread dust, dirt, animal droppings, herbicides and pesticides into your air, over your cars and into the windows of your home.

3.Noise. Blowers whine “like dental drills done beserk,” said the Detroit Free-Press. Added the Christian Science Monitor: “Blowers blare and screech, kick up dirt and dust and accomplish nothing.”

4.Ineffectiveness. Leaf blowers serve no other use than to move garbage onto neighbors’ property (where other gardeners often blow them back.) People should not have to wash their cars, their windows and sweep their walks repeatedly simply because using a leaf blower is more convenient to their neighbor's gardener.

5.Quality of life. Night workers who sleep during the day, retired persons, students who need quiet time to write or study, pregnant and new mothers and people who telecommute all need to minimize the loud noises which increasingly assail them during the daytime hours. The current Manhattan Beach ordinance—where blowers are allowed from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday—assumes that all of the above people don’t exist.

6.Health concerns. Cal OSHA allows only 20 minutes of aggregate daily exposure to a noise level over 100 decibels, while most gardeners run their blowers at 109, for most of the day. Clearly, most gardeners use leaf blowers far in excess of the level Cal OSHA recommends as safe to the operator.

7.Availability of alternate equipment. Gardeners could continue to use electric blowers if they do not wish to use rakes and brooms—which were sufficient prior to the invention of the leaf blower. Electric blowers weigh less, will cause less operator fatigue and do not pollute. The noise they produce is of a less offensive variety than gas blowers because it is steadier and does not rise and fall in pitch.

8.Track record of other cities. City managers and attorneys in Malibu, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Del Mar and Claremont all say that for the most part, gardeners have stopped using leaf blowers in their cities, rates have not gone up and that life has been much more peaceful—and healthier, for it.

9.Environmental damage. Gasoline leaf blowers—which have a muzzle velocity of 150 miles per hour or more—blow away topsoil and ground cover which, if left in place, would help soil to hold precious moisture and would minimize the number of times plants have to be watered. This is crucial, especially in drought years.

10. Absence of hard data about adverse impacts in other cities. The standard refrain from gardeners is that they would have to increase their rates if they couldn’t use their blowers. Yet there’s no evidence of that happening in L.A. or any other cities that have banned blowers. To those who say rates would go up without blowers, consider this: did these same gardeners lower their rates in the 1980s after they began using blowers?


One's right to clean his yard is not the right to send noise, dust, and gasoline fumes into the next three yards.

Comments 1 - 25 of 25        Search these comments

1   georgeliberte   2020 Jul 14, 10:01am  

I use an electric to blow the debris off my patio weekly, into my potato patch.
2   Misc   2020 Jul 14, 10:11am  

As the protestors in Hong Kong showed, they are very effective at dispersing tear gas back at those dispensing it.
3   HeadSet   2020 Jul 14, 10:38am  

+1,000

The worst is the 2 stroke models.
4   clambo   2020 Jul 14, 10:44am  

I agree.
There is a place nearby that has a lot of landscaping and guys come around with leaf blowers.
It’s annoying as hell. My neighbor is tortured by it.
I’m thinking about buying a battery blower and letting them have it on condition they use it here.
5   socal2   2020 Jul 14, 10:44am  

Funny that this is posted today. I have a Microsoft Teams staff meeting on Tuesday mornings and my neighbor's landscapers does his yard work on Tuesdays too. One of them uses the shitty loud 2 stroke blower and it drives me crazy. I had to shut my windows for the duration of the call.
6   Tenpoundbass   2020 Jul 14, 10:55am  

4 is the only reason, and the author knows it, because he didn't say a damn thing about weed whackers.

I saw a guy blowing leaves out on the street the other day. He stopped as I passed by, then continued. It's pretty crappy to blow unwanted debris off your property out into tax funded roads and easements.
7   Tenpoundbass   2020 Jul 14, 11:02am  

Re Two Stroke landscape machines.

I have had 4 stroke and battery powered weed eaters, they don't generate enough torque to do a proper job on more beefy weeds.
I know we're talking about leaf blowers here, do any of you have any problems with a 2 cycle Weedeater?

I think leaf blowers should be illegal if you use them without picking up the pile of debris you created, unless you're blowing it to a corner of your own yard.

As far as annoying noise goes, I find no less or more annoying than a circling helicopter either news or cops, or loud Motor Cycle, especially someone revving it up in their drive way. Or a low flying pane, if you live near enough to an airport that they are regular enough.

Last night about 1am I heard something that sounded like a Rocket taking off, it went on for more than a minute before the noise started to disappear off in the distance.
I don't know what in the hell that was, I didn't go out and check but it was at least 3 times more loud than a Jet flying over head.
8   Eric Holder   2020 Jul 14, 11:13am  

No problem for individual homeowners. But it will totally kill landscaping businesses employing illegals. Therefore it won't happen in CA.
9   RC2006   2020 Jul 14, 11:13am  

Ha I was just talking about this with a coworker the other day. They should be fucking banned especially the gas ones going within fifty feet of one seems more toxic than a really old diesel truck. Mexicans landscapers just blow shit around until the debris dissipate into the air. I have an electric corded one that I only use a few times a year mostly in the fall and pick everything up other than that nothing wrong with using a big broom.
10   RC2006   2020 Jul 14, 11:14am  

Eric Holder says
No problem for individual homeowners. But it will totally keel the landscaping businesses employing illegals. Therefore it won't happen in CA.


Almost seems thats all they use for everything just walking around like zombies with leaf blowers.
11   SunnyvaleCA   2020 Jul 14, 11:55am  

Tenpoundbass says
4 is the only reason, and the author knows it, because he didn't say a damn thing about weed whackers.
For me it's #2 — all the dust, dirt, animal droppings, herbicides and pesticides that have landed on my neighbor's yard are weekly thrown up into the air. Weed wackers are simply no contest on the badness scale.

I think Palo Alto only allows electric powered leaf blowers, but, as they become more and more powerful, problem #2 isn't improved. I'd just suggest that all forms of leaf blowers be banned. Use a rake.
12   Tenpoundbass   2020 Jul 14, 11:55am  

SunnyvaleCA says
For me it's #2


Well all things related to just blowing stuff around, agreed.
14   georgeliberte   2020 Jul 14, 12:12pm  

I think Palo Alto only allows electric powered leaf blowers, but, as they become more and more powerful, problem #2 isn't improved. I'd just suggest that all forms of leaf blowers be banned. Use a rake.
Wouldn't work on my patio and a broom is no better. Could use a hose; but, drought!
15   Patrick   2020 Jul 14, 12:23pm  

Misc says
As the protestors in Hong Kong showed, they are very effective at dispersing tear gas back at those dispensing it.


Clever!
16   FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden   2020 Jul 14, 2:00pm  

Every Mexican gardener uses them. And it’ll be this way for long time.

I have electric one, it sucks. Not enough power and battery does not last.
17   SunnyvaleCA   2020 Jul 14, 2:16pm  

Eric Holder says
it will totally kill landscaping businesses employing illegals. Therefore it won't happen in CA.
If blowers are banned for professionals, then the job becomes slower, which increases demand in the total number of people required.

If blowers are banned for homeowners as well, then homeowners are more likely to hire professionals because the work became harder. So, more demand for professionals.
18   Ceffer   2020 Jul 14, 2:45pm  

This is true. They should be replaced with flame throwers.
19   Booger   2020 Jul 14, 2:58pm  

Fortwaynemobile says
I have electric one, it sucks. Not enough power and battery does not last.


Get a corded blower.
20   RWSGFY   2020 Jul 14, 3:13pm  

SunnyvaleCA says
If blowers are banned for professionals, then the job becomes slower, which increases demand in the total number of people required.


Um, no: the "problem" with battery-powered blowers is not that the job becomes slower but rather that you can't run it all day. No problem for a homeowner, big problem for a roving landscaper.
21   SunnyvaleCA   2020 Jul 14, 5:53pm  

FuckCCP89 says
SunnyvaleCA says
If blowers are banned for professionals, then the job becomes slower, which increases demand in the total number of people required.


Um, no: the "problem" with battery-powered blowers is not that the job becomes slower but rather that you can't run it all day. No problem for a homeowner, big problem for a roving landscaper.
I was talking about banning blowers altogether.

And, as a side note, are there battery-powered blowers readily available that are powerful enough to compete against the 2-stroke blowers? Just curious.
22   Ceffer   2020 Jul 15, 2:38pm  

Corded blowers allow you to quickly and efficiently strangle the blower when they torment you with noise pollution.
23   georgeliberte   2020 Jul 15, 3:09pm  

Corded blowers allow you to quickly and efficiently strangle the blower when they torment you with noise pollution.,
Actually, they will wrap around the user's legs and trip him first.
24   Eric Holder   2020 Jul 15, 3:17pm  

SunnyvaleCA says
are there battery-powered blowers readily available that are powerful enough to compete against the 2-stroke blowers? Just curious.


I have no idea, but I don't see why not. We have battery-powered cars powerful enough to compete against 4-stroke supercars after all.
25   Ceffer   2020 Jul 15, 5:27pm  

georgeliberte says
Actually, they will wrap around the user's legs and trip him first.


You have to make sure your gardener isn't from the Pampas, where they learn tossing bolos from an early age.
www.youtube.com/embed/TYZhZC-59kY

Nothing worse than being taken down by a leaf blower bolo.

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