To the editor:
The leaf blower bylaw being proposed at Town Meeting by the Conservation Commission represents the culmination of six years of work involving research, education, events, and public forums. Its final form incorporates input from commercial landscapers and residents gathered during public meetings.
It allows the use of gas-powered equipment in the fall and spring seasons when more power may be needed for major cleanups while encouraging use of non-fossil fuel alternatives like electric tools, which are allowed year-round without restriction. Exclusions can be sought for public safety and emergency situations.
New models of electric blowers are much quieter than gas blowers. Their noise dissipates more readily and does not easily penetrate walls and windows compared with gas blowers. Toxic/carcinogenic exhaust is eliminated and greenhouse gas emissions reduced.
Passage of the proposed bylaw will help Lincoln preserve and protect the health and well-being of residents, protect our environment from excessive and harmful levels of noise and pollution, and take a modest step towards helping Massachusetts reach its greenhouse gas reduction targets. Importantly, it also contributes to Lincoln’s reputation in environmental stewardship. In passing the bylaw, Lincoln will join with nearly 100 communities in the US and worldwide who have taken similar actions around this particular lawn and garden tool.
Below are some statements extracted from our research findings on leaf blowers and health:
- Children’s Environmental Health Network – Noise from sources such as lawn mowers and leaf blowers can result in hearing loss, stress, high blood pressure, headaches, sleep disturbance, reduced productivity, mental health problems, and reduced quality of life.
- Harvard Medical School – The noise that causes sensorineural hearing loss is usually not one deafening bang but decades’ worth of exposure to the high decibel accessories of daily life: leaf blowers, car horns, traffic, movie theater sounds, and so on.
- Massachusetts Medical Society – Gasoline-powered leaf blowers pose health risks to both workers and the general public.
- Medical Society of the State of New York – Recommends guidelines that would dramatically reduce the toxic emissions and noise level of gas leaf blowers for reasons of health.
- Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, Mount Sinai Hospital, NYC – Leaf blowers create large volumes of airborne particulates, many of which are respirable. Inhalation of these small airborne particles can provoke asthma and other respiratory diseases in children and can increase the severity of chronic lung disease in our elderly. Some of the other potential pollutants from leaf blowers and internal combustion power tools are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and, even, ozone formed from some of these other pollutants. Even lower-level exposures have been associated with respiratory and central nervous system effects.
- The intense, high-frequency noise that [gas] leaf blowers generate can cause loss of hearing in the workers who operate these machines and can also affect hearing in children and other persons
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Being around too much loud noise — like using a leaf blower or going to loud concerts — can cause permanent hearing loss.
A copy of the bylaw proposal, an FAQ sheet, and supporting resources are on the Leaf Blower Study Committee’s web page.
Sincerely,
Jamie Banks (chair of the Leaf Blower Study Committee)
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Sorry current battery powered blowers drain quickly and you are re charging them every 10 minutes. Very inefficient
Here’s why we should all vote NO on this proposed bylaw, along with a suggested amendment that would make it far less of an overreach.
1. The proposed bylaw bans use by individual homeowners of their own gas powered leaf blowers for 7 months of the year. This may make a lot of sense to people who don’t use or have a gas leaf blower but it’s an overreach to impose those sensibilities on everyone else.
2. It offers no transition period nor any help for residents to replace gas leaf blowers with electric ones that would perform as well. It offers no recourse for individuals except to go out and buy new equipment plus extra batteries to do what their current equipment can easily do.
3. While it reduces overuse by contractors, It has very little beneficial impact for individuals doing any of their own summer yard work or winter debris removal on most of Lincoln’s rural, wooded, 2-acre plus zoning. Does that make any sense?
4. It targets the noisy, polluting overuse of multiple simultaneous gas leaf blowers in summer months by lawn service contractors by banning all use, including that of individual homeowners. Why not limit that to the lawn service contractors?
Recommended amendment:
B2: For lawn service contractors, gas-powered leaf blowers may be used only from…(as proposed)
B3: Individual homeowners may no more than one gas leaf blower from December 21 to March 19 and from June 1 to September 30 subject to the Time of Day limitations specified in section C.
By making the above changes, the Leaf Blower Study Committee would have a huge impact on the harmful and annoying over use that is described in their literature and videos without denying individual homeowners to act reasonably.
The current proposal is well intentioned but is still an overreach for individual homeowners. Many want to be “green” and polite regarding pollution and noise. Let’s start with something that gets at the biggest source of problems and lets us all respect each other’s sensibilities at the same time.