GAS-POWERED LEAF BLOWERS ARE HAZARDOUS!

Despite being a chronic nuisance and public health hazard, gas powered leaf blowers are becoming more common and more powerful. The toxic exhaust, dangerous dust and extreme noise they create is harmful to everyone – especially children and seniors. Bottom line: gas powered leaf blowers may seem like a temporary annoyance but they are a serious threat to public health and the environment.

EXTREME NOISE – their high-decibel, low-frequency noise disrupts communities and contributes to hearing loss and hypertension.

HEALTH RISKS – their toxic emissions and fine particulates increase risks of cancer, lung disease, heart disease, and dementia. 

ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS – their toxic waste and smog-forming emissions harm ecosystems and contribute to the climate crisis.

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Montclair passes law sharply limiting gas-powered leaf blowers

 

The Montclair Township Council on Tuesday voted to curtail the use of gas-powered leaf blowers. The new ordinance, which passed by a vote of 5-2, reduces the number of days the machines can be used each year. In effect, gas blowers, which could previously be used for more than half the year, can now be used legally only for two months in the spring and two months in the fall. 

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New York Senate Bill S1113

Senator John Liu is currently sponsoring New York Senate Bill S1113 to prohibit the use of gas-powered leaf and lawn blowers from May first and September thirtieth.

 

Gas-powered leaf blowers pollute the environment in 3 ways: exhaust emissions, noise, and particulates/dust blown into the air. Per the Department of Environmental Conservation website: "Emissions from gas-powered leaf blowers are substantial. The amount of CO (carbon monoxide) emitted from a typical backpack leaf blower for just 1 hour is equal to CO coming from the tailpipe of a current year automobile operating for over 8 hours. For the other pollutants, the amounts are even greater."

This bill aims to cut down on the careless usage of leaf blowers by restricting their usage as a landscaping tool in the non-fall months. SIGN UP FOR NOTIFICATIONS OR READ MORE HERE >

Five Mistakes You're Making with Your Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas are shrubs that boast huge, vibrant clusters of small florets that bloom from late spring until fall and are incredibly easy to grow. Their ease makes them a popular choice among those with green thumbs and those who are new to gardening, alike. But despite that ease it's still possible for home gardeners to make mistakes with hydrangeas. Here are five mistakes you might be making with this flowering shrub—and how to correct them. READ MORE HERE >

Different wake-up call | Awake now to issue of leaf blowers

The noise, and the noxious fumes, override the wonder of the devices for many. In recent years, there’s been a growing effort to ban motorized leaf blowers — those with two-stroke engines, the ones where you mix oil with the gas and then leave a plume behind you. Washington, D.C., did so in 2018, making the use of gas-powered leaf blowers a no-no inside that city’s limits, effective in 2022. READ MORE HERE >

Vacuuming Leaves Is Safer and Cheaper Than Blowing Them

Your pile can only get so big before you need to stop and do something about it. You created a lot of dust and pollution making that pile, but now you’re at the same place you were after a half-hour of blowing. You need to bag them up, or get them on a tarp and drag them off. (Don’t even think about burning them—it’s illegal almost everywhere now). After a half-hour of this drudgery, those leaves are laughing at you. READ MORE HERE >

The Pros and Cons of Laying Down Mulch

When gardeners think of applying fall mulch, their thoughts typically turn to that extra layer that protects plants in cold regions from the ravages of a hard winter. But you can apply fall mulch just like you do in spring, adding enough to refresh what’s broken down. Many landscaping professionals actually practice—and prefer—fall mulching. Fall mulch works like spring mulch to retain soil moisture, suppress weed growth... READ MORE HERE>

Seasonal Hazard for Working at Home: Noxious Leaf Blowers

Workers at home are frazzled by the sounds of the suburbs, with offensive leaf blowers at the top of the noise complaint pile. Millions of American workers last spring thought the silver lining of quarantine would at least be exchanging the hustle and bustle of the office for the relative peace and quiet of home. Then yard work season began.
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16 Smart Gardening Tips and Tricks

Start your gardening journey by understanding the soil you're working with. After you determine what will grow best and when one of our most rewarding tips is to start at the seed and watch as your hard work takes root. It not only feels amazing to see your plant prowess pay off but also offers invaluable insight into your soil for future planting and landscaping. Read More Here >

Leaf Blowers Are Loud, Ugly And Dangerous. The Fumes Increase The Risk Of Cancer And Heart Disease.

Leaf blowers also pose a severe threat to the living leaves still attached to trees and bushes—collateral damage from blowers aimed at the ground. Air blasts of up to 200 miles an hour can demolish the habitats of bees and other insects and small creatures, which are essential to their ecosystems. The dead leaves that blowers target also help prevent moisture from evaporating at trees’ bases, and nourish the soil that sustains plant life.
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Huntington CALM (Clean Alternative Landscaping Methods)

Huntington CALM (Clean Alternative Landscaping Methods) provides education and outreach on the health and environmental impacts associated with highly polluting, noisy landscape equipment. Our mission is to move the commercial landscape industry to zero emission, quiet, sustainable practices. We offer positive solutions that protect the health of families, workers, and our environment. READ MORE HERE >

A Smarter Fall Cleanup

We now know that an overly aggressive approach to cleaning up in autumn can damage the environment. When we mow over, shred or vacuum up leaves, or rake them away from the tree they fell from, we diminish the potential good that the leaves and their various inhabitants — all essential players in the food web — can do.
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How a small group of activists got leaf blowers banned in D.C.

...gas-powered leaf blowers, lawn mowers, and similar equipment... produce more ozone pollution than all the millions of cars in California combined. Two-stroke engines are that dirty. Cars have become that clean. Leaf blowers are especially insidious... and gas-powered blowers produce far more “sound energy” in the low-frequency range. This may seem benign but it has a surprising consequence. READ MORE HERE >

How Bad For The Environment Are Gas-powered Leaf Blowers?

A 2011 test by the car experts at Edmunds showed that “a consumer­grade leaf blower emits more pollutants than a 6,200­ pound 2011 Ford F­150 SVT Raptor.” The company subjected a truck, a sedan, a four­stroke and a two­stroke leaf blower to automotive emissions tests and found that under normal usage conditions — alternating the blower between high power and idle, for example — the two­stroke engine emitted nearly 299 times the hydrocarbons of the pickup truck and 93 times the hydrocarbons of the sedan. The blower emitted many times as much carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides as well. The four­stroke engine performed significantly better than the two­stroke in most of the categories, but still far worse than the car engines. READ MORE HERE >

Meanwhile, in the Suburbs: Leaf Blower Drama

Leaf blowing, a grating soundtrack of the season, faces new scrutiny as noise complaints from cooped-up neighbors rise. The coronavirus pandemic may have accomplished what years of complaining, eye-rolling and window slamming could not in suburban New York: silencing leaf blowers, their loud motors further rattling nerves and perhaps... spreading the virus. READ MORE HERE >

Dr Andrew Weil: BAN LEAFBLOWERS!

When it comes to really bad ideas, the leafblower ranks right up there with adding lead to gasoline and using CFCs in aerosols. Leafblowers are diabolical machines. Even if the claims their promoters make for them were true, the damage leafblowers do outweighs such meager benefits by many, many orders of magnitude. Leafblowers literally scour the earth: stripping off topsoil, desiccating roots, and killing vital soil-dwelling organisms, while, at the same time, propelling into the air clouds of dirt, dust and dangerous contaminants: volatile compounds, mold and fungal spores, weed seeds, insect eggs, pollen, molecules of the myriads of toxic chemicals people spray and sprinkle on their gardens, trees, and lawns, not to mention bird and rodent feces. 
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It's Time To Address Leaf Blowers (Again)

The City has determined that these machines are noisy, dangerous and polluting, and whether or not one agrees, we are a nation (and a city) of laws. If your gardeners are using illegal, noisy, dangerous, polluting gas-powered leaf blowers, may I respectfully suggest that you kick in a few extra bucks to help them finance the transition to legal, quiet, safe and non-polluting electric ones? These guys work very hard, don't get paid very much, and it is ultimately the homeowners, who aid and abet their criminal activity, who are culpable. The City Council has recognized the negative impact of gas-powered leaf blowers upon our health, our environment and our quality of life...  READ MORE HERE >

Good Reasons To Stop Blowing Leaves?

Leaf blowing has become an obsession in America. At this time of year, in the fall, the relentless hum of leaf blowers is not only disturbing, but highly destructive to our landscapes. Instead of valuing leaves as part of natural ecosystems, many people have learned to treat leaves like toxic waste – something to quickly clear away and cart to some other location. Tidiness trumping ecology. It’s a shame because fallen leaves have so many benefits if they are left in place. READ MORE HERE>