Ahh! Spring in Moore Park…. Daffodils and forsythia, robins and cardinals, sunshine and leaf blowers…. Leaf blowers? Those ear-splitting machines with their clouds of dust and debris and stench of burning gasoline and oil? Yes, leaf blowers are back in town, and they’re with us till the last bag of leaves is picked up in December…. Right?

A concerned group of Moore Park residents thinks we should just say "NO!" to gas-powered leaf blowers. In honour of Earth Day, we would like to invite all residents of Moore Park to join us by switching to electric (or even better, good old rakes and brooms) and asking our lawn care companies to do the same.

Leaf blowers were invented by Japanese engineers in the early 70’s and introduced into North America as a lawn and garden maintenance tool. Soon after their introduction, however, two California cities, Carmel-by-the-Sea and Beverly Hills, banned them as a noise nuisance.

Leaf blowers are generally either gasoline or electric powered. Gas-powered units are almost exclusively two-stroke engines (also called small-spark engines) and are mostly used by professional landscapers and park staff. Electric leaf blowers are cheaper and quieter and make up the bulk of sales for home use.

Many owners of professional landscaping companies believe that leaf blowers are essential time-saving tools that enable them to offer services at much lower cost than if they had to use rakes, brooms and water to clean up the landscape. But increasingly, cities are restricting their use in residential areas or banning them outright because of the noise and air pollution they create. In Toronto, leaf blowers are subject to the Noise By-Law, but a legal ban has yet to be enacted.

Gas-powered leaf blowers produce an objectionable sound with a strong, whiny tonality, at levels generally in the range of 80-90 dBA. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration considers noise above 85 decibels dangerous, and even though manufacturers recommend wearing protection at all times, you will notice that many workers regularly work without protective headphones.

So, not only do leaf blowers pose a serious risk of hearing damage to the workers who operate them, and an irritating annoyance to everyone within earshot, they violate Toronto’s Noise By-Law of 70 dBA at 15 metres (a standard established by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a safe average for a 24-hour day). The City of Vancouver considered even a 65 dBA level too high and has banned leaf blowers completely.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) calculated that hydrocarbon emissions from ½ hour of leaf blower operation equal about 7,700 miles of driving at 30 mph average speed. (Hydrocarbon emissions form ozone – a significant component of smog.) Carbon monoxide emissions are equivalent to about 440 miles of driving (CARB 2000). According to the American Lung Association, in the San Francisco Bay Area alone, leaf blowers account for 16 tons a day of smog-forming compounds and carbon monoxide. (The same issue applies to gas-powered lawn mowers. According to the Toronto Star (April 27, 2006), one mower alone produces 48 kg of greenhouse gases in a season, as much air pollution as driving a car 550 km.)

In addition to fuel exhaust, leaf blowers churn up clouds of debris containing animal droppings, pesticides, bacteria, mould spores, pollen, brake dust, and more, spreading these though the air and onto adjacent gardens and sidewalks. The smell created by the burning of gasoline and oil pervades the area. Many workers do not wear respiratory gear when operating leaf blowers, an omission with serious health risks considering the levels of allergens, airborne faeces and particulates they are breathing in. As for the rest of us, the American Lung Association recommends that "passersby avoid blowers, if possible, especially if they suffer from respiratory problems."

For those who cannot contemplate gardening without a leaf blower, electric models are considerably cheaper, quieter and far less polluting than gas-powered. But even electric blowers can cause damage and stress to plants and blow fungus spores onto adjacent vegetation.

Consumer Search has rated a number of electric and gas-powered models and top-rates the Toro Super Blower Vac 51591 (approx. $60 US). An electric leaf blower and vacuum, it weighs only 7 pounds and can generate air speeds of 210 mph (higher than many gas-powered models).

Newer gas-powered models that are much quieter (less than 65 dBA) are being used in some US cities in efforts to meet environmental goals. The Stihl BG46 (approx. $150 US), the Husqvarna 356BTx, and the Solo 445 (approx. $370 US) claim to be environmentally friendly on the basis of lower noise levels. But the problem of emissions remains. The EPA is phasing in new standards for the manufacture of leaf blowers and other small-spark engines used in landscaping, emulating standards already in place in California. EPA claims that this will significantly reduce (though not eliminate) hydrocarbon emissions by 2007.

More and more jurisdictions, however, are banning the use of gas-powered leaf blowers altogether. Twenty cities in California have banned them, five other states have at least one city that has placed restrictions on their use, and the City of Vancouver prohibited them in 2004. In February of this year Toronto’s Planning and Transportation Committee was asked to "further consider" the latest of several motions by Councillor Michael Walker to prohibit the use of leaf blowers in the City of Toronto except during the months of October and November, and at no time on Smog Alert Days.

As a community that prides itself in our heritage, and is committed to environmental conservation, the residents of Moore Park can make a difference to the air quality of our neighbourhood and set an example for our city.

Many of us contract for lawn and garden services throughout the spring, summer and fall. Most, if not all, of our lawn care companies use old, polluting gas-powered blowers that contaminate our neighbourhood, and we are paying them to do so! Why not make our lawn care dollars work for the environment and simply ask our contractors not to use gas-powered leaf blowers at all, especially in the spring and summer when a simple sweep-up of clippings and debris from sidewalks is all that is needed. For leaf pick-up in the fall ask them to switch to cheaper, environmentally-friendly electric blowers like the Toro model. These can be plugged into an outside outlet. And any inconvenience in using a corded blower (as opposed to a portable gas model) is vastly outweighed by the benefits to our environment in the reduction of toxic emissions.

The MPRA will also be contacting all lawn and garden service companies in Toronto to let them know about our initiative and to invite them to participate. We will provide free advertising through the MPRA website and Newsletter for all companies who agree to use clean alternatives to gas-powered leaf blowers.

Moore Park is an ideal neighbourhood in which to reduce or eliminate the use of gas-powered blowers. Our relatively small lawns and gardens make the choice of switching to electric (or using rakes and brooms) an easy one. We hope that lawn companies, who are, after all, helping to beautify our natural environment, will join with us in preserving our air quality and the peaceful enjoyment of our neighbourhood. Working together, we can make it happen.