They have already been banned in more than 100 cities and many more are considering bans. Noise, pollution and carbon emissions are all part of the problem. Is it time for them to be banned in the UK and people encouraged to use rakes?
Ten years ago Michael Hall started a campaign to get petrol leaf blowers banned in Portland. It started from contractors regularly visiting his neighbours garden and using them near his window causing a nuisance. As he looked into them more he realised that they were more than just an annoyance. Noise, pollution, health effects and carbon emissions are all consequences of the obsession with tidy gardens.
He started to take action and formed Quiet Clean PDX to campaign to ban them. They were eventually banned a few years later. To date over a hundred US cities have also implemented bans. He is also spearheading a campaign to encourage people to get raking.
Should garden tidying obsessives be allowed to annoy and harm people because they can’t be bothered to rake?
So what’s so bad about petrol leaf blowers?
Noise: depending on the model these can create up to 100 decibels of noise. That’s the equivalent of a Boeing 737 taking off. In addition to the raw noise nuisance there is also the frequencies. These produce powerful low frequency noise which are very penetrating and travel far. Just closing a window won’t keep all the noise out.
Pollution: most of these, and other garden equipment, have two-stroke engines. These burn a mixture of petrol and oil to lubricate the engines. Almost none have catalytic converters fitted. They are typically inefficient engines which only burn about 66% of the fuel. The rest is emitted as a noxious cocktail including nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), two of the main ingredients in the formation of ground-level ozone.
The Californian Air Resources board has calculated that using a leaf blower for an hour emits the same amount of smog-forming pollutants as driving an SUV for about 1,100 miles.
Carbon emissions: a report by the Environment America Research & Policy Center, based on EPA data, showed that Oregon’s lawn equipment ise emits 441,118 tons of carbon dioxide. This is equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions from 97,108 cars, over the course of a year.
Health effects
The noise levels are known to cause tinnitus in people using them regularly. Often they will be used without ear protection or inefficient badly fitted ear protection.
The nitrogen oxides and VOCs produced by these types of engines are known to contribute to early death, stroke, heart attack, congestive heart failure, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer.
What about the UK?
Currently there are few plans to bring in similar bans in the UK. Edinburgh council is in favour of a ban.
There was a petition on the UK government site calling for these to be banned. This didn’t get much interest.