https://grist.org/solutions/leaf-blower-bans-air-pollution-noise/
"For more than 100 million years, trees have dropped their leaves every fall,
creating a protective layer of duff that provides cover for snails, bees, and
butterflies. Decaying leaves fertilized the soil and gave nutrients back to the
trees. Today, fallen leaves still provide a harvest festival of benefits —
unless they get blasted into oblivion with a leaf blower.
Across the United States, some 11 million leaf blowers roar into action every
year, obliterating delicate debris with 200-mile-per-hour winds. Their
distinctive, whining drone has been hard to escape. But restrictions on leaf
blowers have been spreading across the country, permitting some lucky locales
to experience the season as nature intended, at a humane decibel level.
Outright bans on the gas-powered machines have recently taken effect in
Washington, D.C.; Miami Beach, Florida; and Evanston, Illinois. California will
end the sale of gas-powered blowers next summer. Their hum will also be
silenced in Portland and Seattle in the coming years. Barring a sudden
acceptance of lawns scattered with leaves, rakes and battery-powered devices
will slowly replace them.
Long the dream of noise-sensitive people everywhere, bans started taking off
after pandemic lockdowns in 2020 forced office workers into their homes. Stuck
in their neighborhoods all day, people discovered the beauty of birdsong, along
with a newfound loathing for the whine of the leaf blowers.
Communities that had tried and failed to get restrictions on the devices are
now starting to see success, said Jamie Banks, the co-founder and president of
Quiet Communities, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing noise pollution: “There’s
a lot more consensus around doing something about it.” Today, more than 200
towns across the United States have restrictions on leaf blowers in place,
though many just put limits on what hours or times of year people can operate
them.
Another factor behind the spread of bans is research showing that leaf blowers
emit a shocking amount of air pollution. The California Air Resources Board has
estimated that operating a gas-powered leaf blower for an hour emits as much
smog-forming polluting as driving a Toyota Camry from Los Angeles to Denver.
How is that even possible? Many leaf blowers use a wildly inefficient
“two-stroke” engine, which mixes oil and gasoline and spits out as much as a
third of that fuel as unburned aerosol. The outdated design is cheap, powerful,
and really loud and dirty.
“I definitely think people underestimate the risks,” said Michael Brauer, a
professor of public health at the University of British Columbia."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-women-rights-france-ntds-africa-bears-europe/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
