Our Goal – Ban Gas-powered Leaf Blowers!
The Green Needham Landscaping Team is seeking to ban gas-powered leaf blowers and to shift to safer, more environmentally responsible approaches and equipment for leaf handling and removal in Needham.
Why is eliminating gas-powered leaf blowers so important?
-
- Gas-powered leaf blowers create hazardous, disruptive noise: At levels up to 100 decibels, gas-powered leaf blowers create a documented nuisance, disrupting concentration and communication and increasing stress. The low frequency noise of gas-powered leaf blowers can penetrate walls and carry over long distances. The Center for Disease Control has warned that prolonged exposure to gas-powered leaf blowers can lead to permanent hearing loss. A host of other health problems, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and attention deficits, have been found to be caused or exacerbated by prolonged noise pollution.
- Gas-powered leaf blowers negatively affect climate change: The carbon emissions of gas-powered leaf blowers are significant, cumulative, and will last far into the future. The EPA estimates that, in 2020, lawn and garden equipment such as lawn mowers, leaf blowers, snow blowers and chain saws emitted more than 30 million tons of carbon dioxide – greater than the total greenhouse gas emissions from the city of Los Angeles in 2021. See Lawn Care Goes Electric, released by MASSPIRG.
- Gas-powered leaf blowers have harmful air-quality and health effects: Gas-powered leaf blowers spew a toxic plume of chemicals into the air, including volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxides. Nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are chemical precursors to ozone, which is linked to respiratory illnesses, including asthma. These emissions have a particularly deleterious effect on children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised. Cancer-causing chemicals are also emitted, including benzene, 1,3-butadiene, and formaldehyde. See Lawn Care Goes Electric, released by MASSPIRG, and A Report to the California Legislature on the Potential Health and Environmental Impacts of Leaf Blowers.
- Gas-powered leaf blowers can have especially harmful health effects for lawn-care workers, an environmental injustice: Lawn-care workers using gas-powered leaf blowers for prolonged periods of time, and often without protective gear, are placed at an especially high risk of respiratory illnesses and hearing loss, as the noise level at the operator’s ear exposes some workers to exposure that exceeds OSHA permissible limits. As lower-wage workers, the employees of lawn-care companies may not enjoy either the professional flexibility or the access to high-quality health care that their clients do.
- Healthier, safer alternatives are readily available: In many instances, leaves are nature’s perfect winter ground cover and can be moved to landscape beds to provide a natural composting mulch. For those who maintain their own yards, rakes provide excellent exercise and do much of the job well, without producing clouds of dust that contain dangerous particulate matter such as fecal material, pesticides, fertilizers, and allergens. Although the raking method may be more time-consuming, the health benefits override the shortfalls. And for individual residents and professional
lawn-care services, electric leaf blowers are quieter, effective, and produce no emissions from combustion — although they still aerosolize harmful particulates from yards and streets. This equipment is readily available to private and professional consumers. Green Needham provides a list of organic landscapers that use electric leaf blowers here.
Current Initiatives
-
Green Needham is preparing a Citizens’ Petition that would stop the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in Needham over a phase-in period. The petition is planned for the May 2025 Town Meeting to be voted on by town meeting members.- Green Needham is connecting with other towns in Massachusetts – including Belmont, Lexington, Newton and Arlington – to benefit from their experiences in banning gas-powered leaf blowers in their own communities.
- Green Needham is preparing the town for a possible ban by encouraging Needham residents who maintain their own yards to learn when and how to use leaves as a compost cover in their own landscape beds.
- Green Needham is encouraging Needham residents who maintain their own yards to switch to rakes and/or electric leaf blowers in the near-term future.
- Green Needham is encouraging Needham residents who hire professional lawn maintenance services to insist that electric equipment be used on their properties.
- Green Needham is engaging with local professional lawn maintenance services to encourage and support them in making the switch from gas-powered leaf blowers to safer methods.
If you are interested in learning how you can help, please consider joining our team! Fill out the below form and someone on our Team will contact you.
Our History
Read about what we’ve accomplished so far.
Resources
Documents
Links on the Web
|
Healthy Lawns & Landscapes
Town of Needham's "Healthy Lawns & Landscapes" brochure |
|
Healthy Pots, Healthy Planet
Learn about the dangers of plastic flower pots and sustainable alternatives |
