By Bonnie Sager
Many homeowners unknowingly have their yards bathed in air pollution every single week. They even pay money for a toxic cocktail of pollution and carcinogens to surround their homes. The dirty deed is done by their landscaper, who in just 30 minutes, using his gasoline leaf blower (GLB) produces more emissions than 40 cars idling for 30 minutes.
A GLB generates as much tailpipe emissions in one hour as an automobile does over 350 miles. The difference is that a car emits all that pollution over a big stretch of road, while a leaf blower deposits it all in one front or back yard.
Most of us try to eat wholesome food, get some exercise, recycle, yet we often fail to think about our lawn care and what impact it has on our environment and wellbeing. We think about allergens and pollutants inside our homes, especially if we or family members suffer from allergies or asthma. But all too often never pay the same attention to what is right outside our front door.
In almost any suburban neighborhood, we are inundated with pollution, green house gas emissions, and dangerous health and noise effects from GLBs.
The GLB’s inefficient 2-stroke engine spews up to 30% of its raw gasoline directly into the air. The VOCs from the gas fumes combine with nitrous oxide and sunlight to form ground-level ozone (smog). The air jet of a GLB blows up fine particulate matter that contains pesticides, fertilizers, mold, rodent feces, and other unsavory matter at speeds in excess of 200 mph. Smog and particulates can stay suspended in the air anywhere from several hours to days and can travel many miles.
Even if you don't use a GLB, your neighbor who does can affect 8-12 houses around them, depending on property size. This pollution is similar to second-hand smoke –- it is put into the air without your permission and you and your family suffer the consequences.
There is broad agreement among leading medical organizations that even short-term exposure to these types of pollution can cause or contribute to cancer, heart attack, strokes, congestive heart failure, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other serious conditions. A recent study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health mentions the increasing evidence linking fine particulate pollution exposure to autism in children.
Noise pollution is another side effect of GLBs. At point of use, GLBs noise levels exceed 100 decibels (dB). Those levels far exceed safe levels established by the World Health Organization, US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Noise at these levels can affect our physical and mental health, and our ability to think and function. Potential health effects range from annoyance, sleep disruption, to ischemic heart disease, high blood pressure, and hearing loss. We also have lost the right to the peaceful use and enjoyment of our homes. The whine of the GLB is particularly annoying and penetrates, walls, windows and even ear plugs.
In the summer there are few leaves. All that is accomplished, if you can call it an accomplishment, is pushing some grass clipping and dirt around. This shatters the soundscape, disturbs animal and insect habitats, blows away precious topsoil and mulch, and desiccates grass and plants. Is this vital to the maintenance of our yards?
Hundreds of communities across the country have enacted restrictions or bans and many others are pushing for reform. In all the towns that have restricted GLB use, no landscaper has lost business, yards still look tidy and everyone, especially the landscaper, is healthier for it.
• On Long Island, Huntington CALM (Citizens Appeal for Leaf Blower Moderation) presented our town council with documented and science-based evidence on the environmental and medical facts about what havoc raised by GLBs. We have received multiple endorsements from prestigious medical and environmental groups, yet it falls on deaf ears. Perhaps council people have lost their hearing from listening to GLBs.
• Similar efforts are spreading across Long Island. Ethan Schubart, a sixth grader who lives in Babylon, won first prize on Earth Day 2015 from Covanta Energy Corporation for his thesis on GLBs. His mother has become an activist and got her library to stop using GLBs and is working on getting all the libraries in Suffolk County to restrict GLBs. Stephen Jones of Bridgehampton put his money where his mouth is and funded an ad campaign this summer to educate the citizens of the Hamptons about GLBs.
• Reel Quiet Mowing was established this year on LI. Properties are maintained by using a push mower and the results have been outstanding. Lawns are healthier, eliminating the need for more pesticides and fertilizers which ultimately end up in the LI sound and Great South Bay. These are just a few examples of the efforts people are making to address GLBs.
Dan Mabe of AGZA (American Green Zone Alliance) helped establish Garfield Park, the first green zone park in the nation this year that has zero emission landscaping. Tons of greenhouse gases have been eliminated.
Montclair, NJ, recently passed reform. In Lincoln, Massachusetts, residents have established Quiet Communities, a national non-profit whose mission is to provide research, education, and assistance for communities that value quiet, sustainable, and healthy solutions was created two years ago.
With the tremendous growth of the landscaping industry in the past decade, the “mow, blow and go” guys have invaded our neighborhoods and turned them into polluted industrial zones.
We are asking why this industry is given a free pass. Landscapers frequently don’t adhere to town noise codes, OSHA regulations, and hours of operation. They also don’t operate by industry standards that specifically say only one GLB should be used per property and blowers should not run at full throttle on a regular basis. We also ask if company owners pay into Social Security, Medicare and do they have the proper amount of worker’s compensation insurance for their workers?
Until our politicians are willing to do something, ask your landscaper not to use a GLB on your property, or to switch to lithium battery-powered blowers, an imperfect but vast improvement over GLBs. Talk to your neighbors and see if they will do the same.
Green landscapers are beginning to grow in number as they recognize an opportunity and want to be good stewards of the environment and not cause harm to themselves or others. They use zero-emission equipment that is whisper quiet, doesn't create greenhouse gases, smog or carcinogens. Support them. Today the technology exists to make the landscaping industry a greener one. Talk to your local government. Let's not blow this!
Sierran Bonnie Sager is a co-founder of Huntington CALM.