WSJ on the Obsolete and Hyper-Polluting Technology of Two-Stroke Engines

Screenshot from Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2017.

The Wall Street Journal has a new item in its "The Numbers" series, meant to present surprising data findings. This one, by Jo Craven McGinty, It begins:

Once autumn leaves are down, landscapers with leaf blowers strapped to their backs pour into America’s neighborhoods like hornets from a hive.

Which raises an interesting question: How much pollution does a leaf blower emit?

The short answer is more than a car, a truck or any other modern passenger vehicle.

The story goes into the technological, economic, environmental, and political ramifications of the ongoing effort to phase out two-stroke engines used in lawn equipment. They are already banned, overtaken by new technology, or otherwise out of use in most other applications in the United States, including watercraft and scooters. Well worth reading.

D.C. City Council Testimony on 'Noise and Quality of Life'

An online petition from Change.Org has gathered well over 500 signatures, asking Phil Mendelson, Chair of the District of Columbia City Council, to schedule hearings on a bill by councilmember Mary Cheh that would phase out hyper-polluting, noisy two-stroke gas-powered lawn equipment in the nation's capital. You can read the petition, or add your signature, here.

Meanwhile, the Council's Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization, chaired by council member Anita Bonds, held a roundtable today on “Quality of Life and Noise in Your Neighborhood.” Ruth Caplan, an environmentalist and civic leader who is part of the of the QCDC organization, submitted testimony about the effects of noise on individual and community health, especially noting the environmental-justice aspects. For instance:

Please also think about the workers who are operating those machines.  They’re not 50 or 70 feet away from the source of the noise, as the ratings-based numbers contemplate.  Their ears are no more than three or four feet away....

And think some more about those workers.  They’re typically first-generation Americans who occupy a fragile foothold in our economy and society, far from the top.  They’re ambitious, hard-working, and reliable, but they frequently lack language skills; they may not fully comprehend the risks associated with the equipment that they’re using; they commonly fail to have access to, or use, hearing protection which would help mitigate the damage if used properly; and, in any event, they normally lack sufficient job security to enable them to assert their rights to work under safer conditions.

__________

Statement by Ruth Caplan for Quiet Clean DC, Submitted to the D.C. City Council’s Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization’s Community Roundtable:“Quality of Life and Noise in Your Neighborhood”

December 11, 2017

            Thank you, Chairwoman Bonds and Members of the Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization.  We’re grateful to you for convening this Community Roundtable to consider the under-appreciated issue of noise and its effects on our health, our environment, and our enjoyment of living and working in this great city.

            Thank you for this opportunity to present testimony on behalf of Quiet Clean DC --QCDC for short.

            My name is Ruth Caplan.  I’m a former Executive Director of Environmental Action and of the Environmental Action Foundation, created by the organizers of Earth Day 1970.  I’ve lived in Washington for 35 years, and I’ve worked with my neighbors over many years to improve the quality of life in our city.  I’m currently President of the Cleveland Park Citizens Association, and have been on the Board of the Association for the past eight years.  I care deeply about our city and its citizens . . . your neighbors and mine.  I know you do, too; which is why you’ve convened this Community Roundtable to talk about noise.  It’s an opportunity that we at QCDC welcome.

I’m a member of the QCDC leadership group.  QCDC was formed over two years ago by D.C. residents who are concerned about the proliferation of fossil-fuel-burning leaf blowers.  Specifically, QCDC is disturbed by the impact of gas blowers on our public health.  We want to protect everyone’s right to live, work, and play in an environment that’s free from invasive and damaging noise.  We want to improve the quality of the air we breathe.  And we want to provide social, economic, and environmental justice for those of our neighbors whose job it is to operate machinery that’s causing documented harms to their health.

QCDC is led by a number of prominent members of our community.  James Fallows, the well-known writer for The Atlantic, whose commentaries are frequently heard and seen on radio and television, is one of our founders.  Counted among our leadership group are current and former Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, a former official of the Environmental Protection Agency, lawyers, educators, writers, and other professionals.

            We at QCDC initially were motivated to address the leaf blower problem because of the aggressive noise that over the past several years has become widespread and nearly year-round.  As we began to investigate the problems associated with gas-fueled blowers, we discovered how harmful their operation is to our hearing and our health.  One of the first lessons we learned is that the damage that gas blowers cause isn’t nearly understood or appreciated to the full extent it should be.

Today’s Community Roundtable is focused on noise.  For that reason, this Statement will likewise concentrate on the auditory component of the gas blower problem.  But for a more complete understanding of the other components of the problem – they include the health impacts of the dispersal of toxic materials into our breathable airspace; spillage of petroleum products and waste into our streets, lawns, and public spaces; and spewing of dangerous hydrocarbons and other pollutants into the environment -- let me refer you to QCDC’s web site QuietCleanDC.com.

            For those who share our concern about this problem, rest assured that steps are being taken to address it.  As you know Chairman Bonds, a bill, B22-0234, has been introduced in the Council of the Whole by Council Member Cheh, with sponsorship from yourself and from Council Members Grosso, McDuffie, and Allen.  The bill would ban the sale and use of gas-burning leaf blowers in our city by January 1, 2022.  The bill is awaiting a hearing before the Committee of the Whole in order to move forward and public pressure is building for the hearing to be held.

            QCDC wants to take this occasion to thank you, Chairwoman Bonds, for your support of the bill.  We also thank all of the other sponsors of the bill, and the several other Council Members who’ve assured us of their support for the bill.

            So, what about the noise problem?  How serious is it, and what role do gas-powered leaf blowers play?

            Our research into the issue discloses the following salient facts:

• ·      Gas-powered leaf blowers, especially the ones used by commercial lawn-service contractors -- most of them located in suburban Virginia or Maryland -- typically operate at decibel levels in the 80s, 90s, and above.  Those ratings are measured at a substantial distance from the leaf blower when it’s in operation.  The noise levels at the ears of the operator, just a few feet from the blower itself, are substantially higher.
• ·      Federal workplace safety authorities have declared that 85 decibels, measured on what’s called the “A” scale, is the upper limit of safe human exposure to on-the-job noise.   However, that standard doesn’t take into account the length of exposure, nor does it consider exposure on the part of workers when they’re not in the workplace.
• ·      A study published by Harvard University’s T. C. Chan School of Public Health states that for children, whose sensory and neural systems are still developing, the limit of safe noise exposure in an outdoor setting is 55 decibels . . . substantially below the workplace limit of 85 decibels.
• ·      Because decibels are measured logarithmically, a sound recorded at 85 decibels has over 30 times the energy of a sound measuring 70 decibels.  So, what may appear to be relatively small incremental increases in decibel levels are in fact substantial increases in the impact upon the human organism.
• ·      That same Harvard University study pointed out that the gas-burning leaf blower uniquely generates lower-frequency noise that travels farther than the blower’s middle-frequency and higher-frequency products.  The report concludes that these lower-frequency products aren’t adequately measured by the “A” scale that’s commonly used in noise research.

Further evidence comes from the Federal Centers for Disease Control which has recently published findings that hearing loss is the third most chronic health condition in the United States today.

• ·       According to the CDC, almost twice as many people report suffering from hearing loss as report suffering from diabetes or cancer.  Significantly, the CDC reports that noise exposure away from one’s job can be as damaging as working in a noisy workplace.
• ·      In fact, to quote from the CDC report: “Being around too much loud noise—like using a leaf blower or going to loud concerts—can cause permanent hearing loss.  And once it’s gone, you can’t get it back!”  [Emphasis added] In addition, according to the CDC, about 20% of adults who suffer from hearing loss have no job-related exposure to loud sounds; they’re getting it from the environment around them, other than where they work.  Leaf blowers are a major contributor to that environment.
• ·      As it relates to health, the CDC reports that continued exposure to loud noise can cause hearing loss, high blood pressure, heart disease, stress, anxiety, and depression.
• ·      How does this all relate to the gas-powered leaf blower?  That same CDC report concludes that as little as two hours of exposure to a leaf blower operating at 90 decibels can cause hearing damage.  Remember what I said at the outset: many gas-burning leaf blowers operate above the 85-decibel level . . . that’s measured at a substantial distance.  And without regard to the length of the exposure.

So, please think again about yourself or your neighbor:  you’re walking past a group of workers operating two, three, or four gas blowers in your immediate vicinity.  When multiple blowers are operating simultaneously, each one of them at or above the 85-decibel level, possibly substantially above that level, can you be certain that even a brief exposure won’t cause you some harm?  Are you far enough away from them to avoid damage?  How long are you exposed to that level of ear-shattering noise?  How many blowers are operating, at what decibel level, individually and collectively? Most especially, collectively?

Most important, this hearing is especially concerned about seniors, persons with disabilities, and others with illness and life threatening medical conditions regarding the effects that neighborhood noise can have on the quality of the life of those residents living in an urban environment. For seniors aging in place or in a long-term care facility, they cannot just walk away from this noise.  Persons with disabilities are hampered in moving quickly away from the noise.  And those already suffering from medical conditions will be doubly impacted by the health hazards arising from the micro particles emitted by gas-powered leaf blowers.  

Please also think about the workers who are operating those machines.  They’re not 50 or 70 feet away from the source of the noise, as the ratings-based numbers contemplate.  Their ears are no more than three or four feet away.  So, a gas blower whose decibel rating is 85 – measured from a significant distance – will actually be producing substantially higher levels of energy at the ear of the operators; substantially in excess of 85 decibels.  And for hours and hours on end, every work day.  Remember what the CDC said about that.  These unfortunate people are causing themselves enormous harm, simply from the noise component.  (Again, today we’re not addressing the other, non-auditory harms from the operation of gas-burning leaf blowers.)

And think some more about those workers.  They’re typically first-generation Americans who occupy a fragile foothold in our economy and society, far from the top.  They’re ambitious, hard-working, and reliable, but they frequently lack language skills; they may not fully comprehend the risks associated with the equipment that they’re using; they commonly fail to have access to, or use, hearing protection which would help mitigate the damage if used properly; and, in any event, they normally lack sufficient job security to enable them to assert their rights to work under safer conditions.

Thank you, again, Chairwoman Bonds and Members of this Committee, for this opportunity to present our concerns.  We look forward to continuing a dialogue with you and your staff as we move toward a safer, healthier, quieter, greener, and more equitable community to live, work, and enjoy.

Homeowner Survey: More Than Half Say They Would Switch to Electric Equipment

An ongoing theme in encouraging the shift from noisy, hyper-polluting, inefficient gas-powered yard equipment to modern battery-powered models is that this amounts to "accelerating the inevitable."

The change is inevitable, because these phenomenally dirty small two-stroke engines have been outlawed or abandoned in most other uses. And it can be accelerated, as with other clean technologies, through public standards that increase the market for battery-powered equipment and thus hasten the  improvements in cost and power that are already underway.

An industry consulting organization called The Farnsworth Group conducted a study recently on this shift. A summary of the findings is here; the graph below shows one important point, which is that most householders would already be willing to consider the change. 

The caveat, of course, is that the price and performance of electric equipment has to match that of the current dirty technology. This is a familiar story in other realms, for instance early resistance to cars with catalytic converters or that would use only unleaded gas. Public standards helped build in some of the environmental costs of those dirty technologies -- and also hastened research, production, and market size for cleaner alternatives, which in turn made them more affordable. 

An Additional Hazard to Lawn-Machinery Workers: Being Struck by Traffic that the Workers Cannot Hear

The most obvious drawback of gas-powered leafblowers and other two-stroke lawn equipment is their nuisance noise.

But the most profound objections to them involve the antiquated, hyper-polluting, inefficient combustion of their engines, and the public-health risk that their emissions, the debris they blow up, and their noise present to the workers who operate them.

An under-appreciated aspect of the potential risk to workers comes from their working in or near active roadways, and not being able to hear approaching traffic--either because of the noise of the machinery itself, or because of earplugs or other gear they are wearing to protect themselves from that noise.

A correspondent in Washington D.C. writes:

This morning after I observed a leaf blower operator step sideways while blowing leaves in the middle of the street and almost being struck by an SUV, I googled a little and came up with 8 instances of leaf blower operators being struck by a car, and 1 by a train-

Poway, CA:

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Landscaper-Struck-by-Car-in-Poway-249532061.html

http://www.elialaw.com/blog/motor-vehicle-accidents/landscaper-struck-blowing-leaves/


East Newport, NY:

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/east-northport-man-using-leaf-blower-fatally-hit-by-jeep-cops-say-1.14629829

https://www.nylawnet.com/nassau-man-using-leaf-blower-fatally-hit-by-jeep/


Tiverton, RI:

http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20140813/News/140818533


Cheboygan County, MI:

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/09/man_steps_in_front_of_car_kill.html

http://www.9and10news.com/2016/09/15/cheboygan-county-man-killed-after-being-hit-by-car/


Jackson, NJ:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/jackson_man_struck_by_car_in_f.html


Escambia County, FL:

http://www.northescambia.com/2012/03/man-using-leaf-blower-hit-by-car


Brookhaven, PA:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/08/04/police-release-surveillance-video-of-vehicle-involved-in-brookhaven-hit-and-run/


Rome, NY:

http://www.uticaod.com/article/20151020/NEWS/151029993


Industrial Sand Mine

https://arlweb.msha.gov/newsinfo/2015/near-miss-serious-accident.pdf

A miner was clearing snow off a rail switch with a leaf blower. The miner was wearing hearing protection and did not hear or see an approaching train. The miner was struck by the train, knocked to the ground, and suffered an amputated arm when a railcar ran over his arm.

As  these reports note, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, some 300,000 people per year must visit emergency departments for injuries related to yard and garden equipment.

The Legal Aspects: Liability for Exposure of Lawn Crews to Health Hazards?

In big cities and their suburbs, the people who spend hours each day handling lawn equipment -- leaf blowers, lawn mower, weed whackers, chain saws -- are generally members of hired crews. These workers, in turn, are generally low-wage, often immigrant or non-English speaking. Few are on long-term salaries or with good health-benefit plans. Thus the people most exposed to the potentially damaging side effects of dirty two-stroke gas engines -- the noise, the vapors and particulate emissions, the dust, spores, and animal-fecal matter they blow up -- are generally those with the fewest financial or medical resources to protect themselves.

The resulting workplace-justice imbalance is one that law firms have begun to notice. Consider this posting from the Bollinger Law Firm of North Carolina. Relevant passages:

Though the look of trimmed grass and shaped hedges may be aesthetically pleasing, achieving this look often means that North Carolina workers in the landscaping industry have to work in various conditions. Additionally, they may also face hazards that could potentially lead to workplace illness.

One man in another state faced health issues due to exposure to exhaust emitted from a gas-powered leaf blower he used during his landscaping duties. The man was apparently in the industry for five years before having to give up his first job due to experiencing migraine headaches nearly every day. He later took a position with a landscaping company that used electric machines, and the headaches subsided....

Information that is available indicates that toxic fumes are often emitted from gas-powered machines as well as ultrafine particles that workers may breathe into their lungs. These particles could potentially lead to illnesses such as lung cancer and heart disease or other health issues like asthma....

If North Carolina workers have become ill due to job-related duties, they may wonder what options they have for addressing the situation. When it comes to potentially obtaining financial assistance, workers' compensation may be able to help. Therefore, workers may want to gain more information on this option.

The fear of legal liability is a crude instrument through which to make ongoing social decisions. But it has had a profound effect -- in auto and aviation safety, in policy toward cigarettes, in workplace safety rules, and in countless other realms. As the evidence of the ongoing risk to a largely vulnerable population piles up -- for instance, see this Fair Warning report -- it may become part of the debate over hyper-polluting small engines as well.

Update: the Regan Zambri Long firm of Washington D.C. has put up a post to similar effect:

• Flying debris. Leaf blowers use high-velocity air to send leaves, dust, dirt and even small stones airborne, any of which can become a projectile causing eye or skin injuries to anyone in the path.... 
• Hearing damage. Leaf blowers can be very loud, causing permanent hearing loss in the user and/or others nearby. ...
• Respiratory issues. Along with projectiles, leaf blowers kick up dust, which may include allergens, causing respiratory problems in those who are allergic or sensitive. Additionally, gas-powered blowers emit carbon monoxide and noxious fumes which can overcome those nearby.... 
• Burns/electric shock. Gas-powered blowers can get hot around the motor, burning the skin if you accidently touch the housing. Electric-powered blowers can cause shock or electrocution if the wiring becomes exposed or damaged. 
   

Change.Org Petition for Hearings in the DC City Council

DC residents especially, and interested supporters from around the country, can sign this petition for hearings by the DC City Council on proposed legislation.

Across Washington D.C. the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions that have considered new legislation to hasten the change to clean, quiet electric lawn equipment have offered overwhelming support. (ANCs are elected bodies that represent neighborhoods across the District.) The reasons for their support are the ones often mentioned on this site: the needless noise burden on neighborhoods and workers, the exceptional levels of pollution created by two-stroke gas-powered engines, the public health burdens for the community as a whole and the occupational dangers for the lawn crews that use the equipment, and the availability of battery-powered alternatives.

The next step is for hearings on the legislation by the D.C. City Council. This petition requests that the Council chair, Phil Mendelson, schedule the hearings. Feel free to read and lend your support. (And D.C. residents, please note that fact.)

Hello, World!

'The Government Must Regulate Lawn Equipment. Seriously.'

From website of The Week

That's the title of a new essay in the popular magazine The Week. "Seriously" is of course the touch that makes the title work. It's related to the main point that the author, Ryan Cooper, wants to argue. Minor-seeming as the "lawn equipment" question might sound, it's actually a serious environmental and public-health issue. Crucially, as Cooper points out, in just the era where nearly every part of the mechanized infrastructure is under pressure to clean up -- automobiles and trucks, airplanes and ships, power generation and heating -- two-stroke gas engines are increasing anomalies. As Cooper puts it:

"Gas-powered leaf blowers are indeed bad. But the problem runs deeper. In fact, all small gasoline engines — used in things like weed whackers, lawn mowers, tillers, and so forth — are astoundingly filthy and should be phased out as soon as possible. It's time to electrify all lawn equipment.

"The problem with small engines is that they generally have a primitive design and little or no emissions control technology. And with people fueling their small tanks with jerry cans, they also tend to lead to lots of spills. While cars and trucks have leaped ahead with catalytic converters, advanced combustion techniques, and computer-controlled fuel injection, small engines are still using technology that was outdated in the 1960s. Worst of all are two-stroke engines, which require oil to be mixed in with the fuel, about a third of which is forced out the exhaust instead of being burned, and so produce immense pollution as a basic function of operating."

The greater anomaly, of course -- though a hopeful one -- is that much cleaner, quieter, healthier alternatives are available in the form of electric powered equipment. 

Jamie Banks on the Newton struggle

Last week the Boston Globe had a front page story about the increasingly fractious politics of leaf blower control in the suburb of Newton. You can read about the report here.

Today in the Globe,  Jamie L. Banks, of the Quiet Communities environmental organization in the Boston suburb of Lincoln, points out that the pitched battles may be unnecessary, since technology (and community strategy) are leading other communities to post-dirty-engine solutions. In her letter to the editor Banks says: 

Transitioning to electric technology is best started with positive incentives to engage operators and let the cleaner alternatives prove themselves.... Financial incentives and active promotion of green businesses are needed.

More than 100 companies now operate with advanced electric equipment, and at competitive rates. Harvard, Tufts, and Yale are among the schools making the shift. In 2016, South Pasadena, Calif., became the first city in the nation, according to the American Green Zone Alliance, to maintain all municipal grounds with low-noise, zero-emissions tools. Southampton, N.Y., is following suit.

One consistent theme of the QCDC campaign in Washington D.C. is that the shift away from hyper-polluting, medically damaging, obsolete two-stroke gas-powered engines is a matter of "accelerating the inevitable." Sooner or later communities and companies will adopt radically cleaner and quieter battery-powered alternatives. It might as well be sooner. 

The Nation's Capital Gears Up Again for a new Leaf Blower Policy

From the Northwest Current.

The Northwest Current, an influential local-news publication in Washington D.C., has a report by Brady Holt on the progress of proposed legislation to phase out gas-powered leafblowers and shift to much cleaner, quieter electric models. The story is here. The measure has gained increasing support across the city, from Council members and local Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. What stands between it and enactment is the procedural matter of getting on committee dockets. As Holt says:

A bill pending before the D.C. Council would ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers within the District starting in 2022, as requested by various community members who have cited concerns regarding both noise and pollution.

But in the time since Ward 3 member Mary Cheh first introduced the measure in January 2016, it has never made it to a committee hearing. The 2016 bill was referred to the Committee on Business, Consumer, and Regulatory Affairs, which had tentatively planned a hearing that fall. But leaf blowers were lost in the shuffle after the committee’s chair, Vincent Orange, lost his re-election bid, took another job and resigned from the council before completing his term.

Meanwhile the DC civic groups are re-revving up their efforts, to convert the support they've gained from elected officials into a hearing and Council vote.

A follow-up issue of the Northwest Current included a letter from Denise Paolella, of DC, in support of the measure:

I have especially resented the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in the dead of winter and in the summer when leaves and grass clippings are minimal and can be swept under bushes to rot and nourish the soil.

Unfortunately, landscaping companies have not chosen to regulate themselves or reduce their carbon footprint and therefore must be regulated. I hope that the 2016 bill introduced by Ward 3 D.C. Council member Mary Cheh will be assigned to another committee and that a hearing will be scheduled sometime in 2018.

KCET Airs Documentary on Environmental Effects of Lawn Equipment

The public TV documentary that was previously mentioned here aired last night, and is now available on KCET's site. You can see it here -- or in the embedded version below, with the leafblower portion starting around time 14:30. 

The KCET project was in collaboration with a non-profit anti-pollution and corporate responsibility group called Fair Warning. On its web site, Fair Warning has a powerful new item, about the same theme the video emphasizes: that while noise is the most obvious side-effect of leaf blowers, it may not in fact be their most damaging consequence. Noise is a genuine problem, but even worse is what their emissions do to the the health of the people who use them, who in big cities are increasing the usually-low-wage employees of commercial lawn crews. Even beyond the impact on these workers, these old-tech engines have polluting and climate effects that, almost incredibly, are coming to rival those of automobiles. The new item says:

As FairWarning reported in September, while automobile motors have been overhauled over the decades to slash emissions, there has been no equivalent clean-up of small off-road engines, a category including lawn and garden equipment and generators. As a result, those gas-powered machines are on their way to becoming the worse polluters. For example, the California Air Resources Board says the smog-forming contamination from running a top-selling leaf blower just one hour matches the emissions from driving a 2016 Toyota Camry for 1,100 miles.

In the Los Angeles area as soon as 2020, the small machine category is expected to overtake ordinary sedans as a source of oxides of nitrogen and reactive organic gases, which are precursors to smog. Nationwide, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that small nonroad engines already account for 81 percent as much of those pollutants as sedans, a comparison that excludes SUVs and light trucks.

 Fair Warning reports that California, which for nearly half a century has led the nation in anti-pollution standards, is preparing much tougher controls on two-stroke equipment (emphasis added):

[California] Air board officials, however, plan to propose another batch of rules in 2020 to further curb both evaporative and exhaust emissions. That move is intended to accelerate a shift in the marketplace from gas-powered equipment to so-called zero emissions electric machines. “In the longer term, what we need to do is transition entirely away from gasoline-powered off-road engines,” said Bill Magavern, policy director for the California advocacy group Coalition for Clean Air.

The goal is to curb pollution linked to lung cancer, heart disease, strokes, asthma and other respiratory ailments. Those thought to be most at risk are landscaping workers who spend long hours operating gas-powered equipment, and who may be exposed to elevated levels of ultrafine particles that pose a breathing hazard. Air tests commissioned by FairWarning in June and July found high ultrafine particle concentrations around operating machines – in one case, the concentration was more than 50 times higher than at a nearby traffic-clogged intersection.

As this report makes clear, the public-health and environmental damage done by this sort of dirty old equipment is all the more unnecessary, since lawn-equipment manufacturers, notably Stihl, are pioneering new, clean, quiet battery-powered machines.

Next in this space: an update in the nation's capital, Washington D.C., to apply progressive standards similar to those in the nation's most populous state.

KCET Los Angeles: Leaf Blowers and Related Equipment Will Overtake Cars as Pollution Source

"It turns out noise pollution is not the biggest health problem created by gas leaf blowers." Screenshot of KCET report; for more, go to their site.

Early this year, air quality officials in California reported that leaf blowers and other gas-powered lawn equipment would soon be producing more ozone pollution and other smog-producing contaminants than all cars in the country's most populous state combined. That was a sign both of how clean modern cars were becoming, and how dirty the antiquated technology of two-stroke gas-powered engines remains.

This week KCET, the public broadcasting station in Los Angeles, has a followup report on the surprisingly consequential pollution, climate-related, and public health consequences of this equipment. You can see the trailer for their report below, and find out more here. The full report will air through the week of November 13, 2017.

Newton Considers Its Leaf Blower Future

The Globe's story about Newton's leaf-blower dispute.

The Boston Globe has a feature story by Dugan Arnett about disagreements over leaf-blower policy in the Boston suburb of Newton, which have reached an intense level that some other communities have avoided. You can read the story (with metered paywall) here. Samples:

Anyone who has had a peaceful afternoon shattered by the jet-like roar of super-powered leaf blowers — especially when deployed by bands of workers alighting on others’ lawns — might relate to the outrage.

And Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who was attacked by a neighbor last week, apparently in a dispute over his yard, can certainly attest to how intense landscaping rage can become.

But why now? For one thing, hiring out lawn maintenance has never been more popular.

Arnett goes on to say how widespread the practice of hired lawn crews working on suburban lawns has become, in contrast to homeowners tending to their own property.

The other big change, the story points out, in the increasing intensity of all factors involving this practice: weeks per year, lawns per neighborhood, horsepower -- and emissions and decibels -- per blade of grass and fallen leaf. As he puts it:

Equipment has become ever more powerful — prompting various towns around the region, including Cambridge and Brookline, to begin looking at ways to minimize the noise.

But in well-to-do Newton, where as many as 70 percent of homes employ a landscaping service, according to one estimate, things have quickly gone off the rails.

On one side are residents, even some who hire landscaping companies, who complain that the heavy-duty, gas-powered blowers favored by lawn-care companies kick up dust, pollute, and make life miserable.

The story also describes a Newton group called C.A.L.M. -- Citizens Against Leaf blower Mania. You can learn more about their positions, work, and events here.