The negative impacts of leaf blowers
The noise of gas-powered leaf blowers is louder than is healthy for humans.
The loud, offensive noise from a gas-powered leaf blower has broader implications for the health of residents walking by, children playing in nearby yards, and even pets.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers among the sources of loud noise that can damage hearing over time. Permanent hearing loss can occur with just 15 minutes of exposure at the highest decibel level that gas-powered leaf blowers operate.
Author James Fallows has noted that “noise is the secondhand smoke of the era.” The harmful sound emanating from leaf blowers is damaging to the surrounding community as well as the environment. Besides causing auditory damage, harmful sound has been proven to increase behavioral problems in children, cognitive decline, reduce achievement and productivity. The health of millions of Canadians is at risk with children among the most vulnerable. Short, impulsive, and long-term exposure to noise pollution has links to a host of health impacts, including diabetes, increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, metabolic disturbances, and exacerbation of psychological disorders.
The low wage workers who operate backpack leaf blowers for long hours suffer the most. Leaf blower operators, their ears besieged by the relentless roar of the deafening noise levels, are almost assured of developing hearing issues. Prolonged exposure to excessive noise can result in auditory damage, ultimately reaching a point where permanent hearing loss becomes a possibility. Healthy hearing should be a reality. It can be achieved and it is worth the effort.
Gas-powered leaf blowers (GLBs) emit toxic air that anyone nearby breathes.
When the gardener finishes blowing leaves off the grass it seems reasonable to assume the outside air is safe. But scientists tell us these machines emit pollutants that are far more significant than often realized. The gas-powered leaf blowers and related garden equipment spew toxic chemicals and planet-warming emissions that are the source of multiple negative health and environmental impacts.
According to the California Air Resources Board, a state agency that regulates air quality, during just one hour of operation, gas-powered leaf blowers release pollutants equivalent to what a car would produce on the 15-hour journey from Toronto to Charlottetown, PEI. That’s quite a staggering comparison!
Additionally, the United States Environmental Protection Agency says, due to the inefficient combustion process in these devices, emissions from the 30% unburned gasoline fuel contribute to ozone air pollution and emit fine particles leading to premature death.
The fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emitted can penetrate deep into the lungs and even enter the bloodstream, causing various health issues ranging from respiratory problems to cardiovascular diseases.
The presence of carcinogens like benzene and butadiene in the exhaust also poses a risk of cancer, reinforcing the importance of addressing these emissions for both environmental and public health reasons.
It’s important to consider these impacts when discussing the use of gas-powered equipment and to explore cleaner alternatives that can help reduce pollution.
Multiple cities across the United States and Canada are implementing bans on the use of these devices. California, which has long been a leader in environmental policy, has enacted restrictions on the sale of new gasoline-powered lawn mowers and landscaping tools.
Here’s a professional opinion.
The health risks are particularly acute for the operators and those in close proximity including children and the elderly, due to the emissions of toxic and carcinogenic substances.
(Greg J. Evans, Ph.D., P.Eng., Director, Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice (ISTEP); Director, Southern Ontario Centre for Atmospheric Aerosol Research .)
Greg Evans, a professor in the department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto, an expert in the study of pollution, has highlighted the environmental and health impacts of gas-powered leaf blow and his concern about the exhaust fumes the worker breathes:
Two stroke engines are known to be high emitters of numerous air pollutants. One such pollutant is ultrafine particles, which are particles less than 100 nm in diameter. We measured the concentrations of these ultrafine particles at different distances from a single leaf blower that was operated at different powers.
The ultrafine particle concentrations generated by one specific leaf blower exceeded a million particles per cubic centimeter; someone breathing this very polluted air would inhale over a billion of these particles with every breath.
Ultrafine particles are a strong indicator of emissions from combustion processes such as those that occur in the combustion engines of vehicles and planes. Though there are no in- Canada guidelines, the World Health Organisation has proposed a one-hour high particle number ambient air quality guidelines for ultrafine particle exposure concentration “good practice” criterion of 20,000 particle/cm3;
The concentration that we measured for this specific leaf blower was 50 times higher than this World Health Organisation criterion.
The 200 miles-an-hour leaf blower exhaust kills small animals and insects.
Here’s what else they do:
Contaminate the air and water in our neighbourhoods.
Increase smog and worsen climate change by emitting many tons of CO2
Create dust and debris that can contain herbicides, pesticides, and metals such as lead, that can linger in the air for a week
Damage lawns, gardens, trees and injure plants, remove topsoil/mulch, and desiccate soil.
Destroy animal nests and habitat.
Injure or kill birds, small mammals, and other beneficial insects including pollinators.
Emissions, fuel spills and grass clippings, clog storm sewers, pollute our creeks and rivers and local waterways, destroying aquatic life.
