Board of Health: residential areas don’t need leaf blower regulations

By Alice Waugh

The Board of Health, which is on record as saying airborne particles and noise from gas-powered leaf blowers are a health hazard, has issued a statement distancing itself from a crackdown on use of the machines by homeowners, saying that in Lincoln, leaf blowers cause the most problems on paved surfaces, especially in the business district.

The case for regulations limiting use of leaf blowers in town made by the Leaf Blower Study Committee (LBSC) was bolstered last March when the board declared that leaf blowers pose a threat to health and said it supported “effective and economically sound approaches to mitigate those health risks.” The LBSC recently proposed a draft of regulations for discussion at a January 6 public forum, with the idea that these rules (amended as necessary based on public input) would be put to a vote at Town Meeting on March 28. Several other municipalities have such regulations, the group noted.

However, in a December 10 advisory that was posted on the town’s website this week, the Board of Health specified that “the most concentrated and potentially harmful exposures” from leaf blowers are found in the area around Lincoln Mall and the commercial buildings across Lincoln Road because of the many parking areas and paved roads and walkways there.

“The evidence we reviewed suggests strongly that use of leaf blowers on such solid surfaces raises the largest clouds of dangerous particulates. In addition, the close proximity of multiple commercial entities in the business center that are maintained by different vendors means that residents of and visitors to the center are at risk for such particulate clouds, with accompanying loud and persistent machine noise, on many if not all days of the week in non-winter months, at levels that may be deleterious to their health.

“By contrast, the board is much less clear that the use of leaf blowers in other areas of our town presents consistent or even frequent bystander health risks from noise or air pollution,” the advisory said. To tackle the issue in the commercial area of town, the board suggested exploring and defining technology alternatives to backpack or rolling leaf blowers in the business center, such as brush or vacuum machinery, and coordinating one or two half-days for surface cleaning in that area.

“As an individual, I would vote against the leaf blower regulations in their current form,” said Board of Health member Steven Kanner, M.D. in an email to the Lincoln Squirrel. “The town-wide portion restricting leaf blowers ultimately is a lifestyle issue, not a clear health and safety issue, and I personally do not think that it rises to the level of requiring regulation, aside from the immense complexity involved in writing such regulations…. Many attendees at the [LSBC forum] on Tuesday this week voiced their concerns, for example, as to why they would not be allowed to use their own leaf blower to clear off their patio for a few minutes after they mow their own lawn in the summer. There was no good answer given to those concerns.

“As a member of the Board of Health, we made clear our professional opinion that health issues from particulates and noise pollution are only in play in the business center of town,” Kanner continued. “We also think that meetings with landlords and their landscape contractors to focus on practical process changes will likely mitigate the town-center situation effectively, and [we] encourage the leaf blower committee to pursue that path vigorously, leaving regulation (with Board of Health support) as a backup if such efforts ultimately fail. The proposed bylaw and regulations are not supported by the Board of Health recommendations on the subject as detailed in our advisory of December 10, 2014.”

“We are in the midst of formulating a response and will be able to provide information early next week,” LBSC chair Jamie Banks said on Wednesday.