SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Part 3 Leaf Blowers Health Risks

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Last year, Long Island state Assemblyman Steve Englebright, chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Environmental Education, called on Basil Begos, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, to include information on his department’s website “explaining the hazards” of gas-fired leaf blowers.

“Additionally, it would be important to explain the advantages of switching to battery-powered equipment to reduce any health risks and reduce greenhouse gases,” wrote the lawmaker from Setauket.

Mr. Englebright continued that “the EPA has noted that the fine particulate matter from the using gas-powered leaf blowers poses serious health threats including cardiovascular and respiratory harm.”

This is one avenue in challenging gas-fired leaf blowers. 

Also last year, the Suffolk County Legislature unanimously passed a resolution, sponsored by Legislator Bridget Fleming of Noyac and Sarah Anker of Mt. Sinai, calling on the Suffolk Department of Public Works “to study the feasibility of alternatives to gas powered maintenance equipment.”

The resolution began: “Whereas the County of Suffolk has made environmental protection…a top priority…and national organizations including the American Green Zone Alliance, as well as local organizations including Huntington CALM—

Citizens Appeal for Leafblower Moderation—have identified gas-powered leaf blowers as a concerning source of pollution.” 

 This is another avenue for Suffolk in challenging gas-fired leaf blowers. 

 As we have been writing in this series of articles: gas-fired leaf blowers constitute a huge health and environmental threat. As Dr. Ken Spaeth, MD, MPH, of the Hofstra School of Health Sciences, has written, they are “extremely harmful to the health and the environment…Gasoline-powered leaf blowers pose multiple health and environmental hazards.” The use of them “for clean-up and routine landscape maintenance is exposing us all unnecessarily to pollutants and noise…When compared to an average large car, one hour of a gas-powered leaf blower use emits 498 times as much hydrocarbons, 49 times as much particulate matter and 28 times as much carbon monoxide.”

As to noise, the noise they make are “are in orders of magnitude—since decibels are on a logarithmic scale.” The “fine particulate matter—under 2.5 microns” that they spread “which easily gets into the lungs and even into the blood stream can cause premature death,” stated Dr. Spaeth, “heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure, and lung disease—including asthma attacks—and can result in the increase of chronic lung disease in the elderly.” 

Moreover, he stated, “there is environmental degradation.” Their high velocity “can destroy nests and animal habitats, desiccate pollen, sap and other natural plant substances, and injure or destroy small birds, small mammals and beneficial insects.”

Furthermore, Dr. Spaeth emphasizes, there are “alternatives” to gas-fired leaf blowers. “Alternatives include commercial grade lithium ion batteries or other electrical equipment.”

Also calling for restrictions on gas-fired leaf blowers is the Sierra Club’s Long Island Group. “The Sierra Club’s motto is ‘Explore. Enjoy and Protect the Planet,’” it explains. “Part of enjoying the planet is to hear its natural sounds—singing of birds, wind in the trees, and children playing in a toxic-free environment.” Gas-fired leaf blowers “interfere with all these and more, both while they are running and afterwards as the dust settles. Many communities across America have recognized these issues and put some basic limits on the use of leaf-blowers.”

On the front line of those laboring with gas-fired leaf blowers are often low-income immigrant workers and their health is being impacted. Gas-fired leaf blowers “can make an infernal racket, and environmental officials say that exhaust from gas-powered lawn and garden equipment is a surprisingly big source of air pollution,” the organization FairWarning has written in a study. 

This non-profit investigative news organization focuses on public health, safety and environmental issues and related topics of government and business accountability. “But are landscaping workers who use the equipment day in and day out exposed to harmful emissions?…With the help of a grant for the Fund for Investigative Journalism, FairWarning hired a health consulting firm and carried out testing among workers using gas-fired leaf blowers in Los Angeles. Among the conclusions: the gas-fired machines generated “far more” contaminants than “detected” at a “busy” LA highway intersection—“while the electric machines did not.”

From FairWarning and others, we’ve received plenty of fair warning about gas-fired leaf blowers. It’s high time for action—for widespread limits and bans on their use!