New York: In the State Senate, Sen. John C. Liu — a former member of the New York City Council who was also the city’s comptroller during the Michael Bloomberg administration, has introduced a bill to restrict gas-powered leaf blower use in the state. You can read about the bill’s provisions, follow its progress, and give an online indication of support here.
New Jersey: Hal Strelnick, who is a professor of Family and Social Medicine and of Epidemiology and Population Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, writes to the Montclair Local news site to endorse Montclair’s proposal to ban gas-powered blowers for eight months of the year. His full letter is here. A sample of his argument:
Gas-powered leaf blowers pose a severe threat to community health because of their emissions. We can hear that these machines are deafening, but they are also invisibly toxic. Leaf blowers generate copious amounts of fine and ultrafine particulate matter, both through their exhaust and dust blown into the air, which can linger for days….
At the request of NYC Mayor David Dinkins, I once wrote a paper called “What’s a Mayor to Do About Health?” addressing the limited municipal authority in regulating health. Municipalities cannot regulate vehicle or smokestack emissions. One thing municipalities can do to powerfully improve human health is to limit gas-powered leaf blowers as much as possible. Today, cleaner, safer, effective alternatives are readily available. The council can help protect those of us who live here from these invisibly toxic machines.
Minnesota: During the current freeze and blizzard, a correspondent from a small city near Minneapolis writes about his cold-weather discovery.
In my corner of Minnesota it is prudent to hire strong young men with shovels and machines to move plowable snow. I am quite healthy for my age but I recall what my mom often said to my dad when he grabbed a snow shovel: "You aren't a spring chicken anymore." And the strong young men need seasonal part time employment.
When the snow is less than plowable I remove it by hand to avoid its becoming packed and slippery, but sometimes it appears more amenable to a broom than a shovel. Snow pushed with a broom becomes unmanageable. So I bought a leaf blower and used it for the first time today. You would approve of it!
It is a Black and Decker 60 volt battery operated electric blower. The motor is virtually silent. The fan whines a little, like a dust buster, not nearly as loud as a typical 2 cycle internal combustion motorized leaf blower. And the air I am breathing is not polluted by my blower. A few months from now I will be mowing the lawn with a B&D mower that is barely audible across the street.
Home Depot: An online equipment provided named HD Supply, which is now part of Home Depot. has a section devoted to battery-powered equipment, to comply with the increasing number of local bans on gas blowers. You can see it here.