Earlier this month in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, columnist Bill Torpy argued that it was time for a different kind of wake-up call—one about the environmental, public health, and neighborhood-welfare effects of gas-powered leaf blowers.

Torpy notes that use of the machinery has gone from an occasional autumn practice to a year-round sign of having a manicured yard. He goes on:

“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.

“In November, the Athens-Clarke County government decided to look at regulating them. Commissioner Russell Edwards, who called them a “scourge,” said leaf blowers have become “a sleeper issue that resonates.”

“Folks sometimes grow resigned and they’ll hear someone say, ‘I’m tired of this,’ and they’ll say, ‘Hell yes!’”

The column also has extended quotes from one of the nation’s most active leafblower advocates, a man named Larry Will. This will give you a chance to read and judge the arguments for yourself. Please compare his claims about how quiet modern gas-powered blowers are, with the extensive testimony on which the Washington D.C. City Council based its unanimous vote to phase them out.

Thanks to Bill Torpy for laying out these issues.