Are leaf blowers
really that noisy? Oh, I know what you're thinking.
Of course they are. Right?
W ell, not really. Sure, there are
still some older blowers in service that are quite
noisy, but today's new blowers are very different.
All are quieter than they used to be and many are as
much as 75% quieter than blowers manufactured 10 years
ago
Measuring
Sound. Echo Inc. has spent millions of dollars to
design, develop and acquire new manufacturing equipment
to provide consumers with an environmentally friendly
leaf blower.
If you want
to learn more about the modern leaf blower, please read
on.
E cho Inc. has
been the leader in the effort to provide environmentally
friendly leaf blowers. Today, Echo's "Quiet 1" is
the benchmark to which all other manufacturers compare
their new leaf blowers. It was the very first
quiet leaf blower at 65 dB(A)1, which has
been on the market since 1995. The design contains
sound absorbing materials that have eliminated the whine
typical of older blowers. A new concept muffler
was introduced to lessen exhaust sounds and a patented
sound attenuator was added to the air intake system.
Even special plastics were employed to deaden any rattle
that might be caused by engine vibration. The air
impeller (fan) and cowling were redesigned to reduce
airflow sound while maintaining top efficiency and
performance.
A
nti-leaf blower activists tend to
argue that sound is not the only thing they do not like
about blowers. Some say that leaf blowers are bad
for the environment. Not any more. This
argument is unfounded. The EPA has mandated that
all small engines, similar in size to leaf blowers, must
meet strict exhaust emission requirements. For
some engines, hydrocarbon emissions have been reduced by
90%. Many designs have changed so radically that
completely new engine concepts have been introduced.
O
nly the EPA has the authority to regulate exhaust
emissions from small engines in the United States.
The State of California has its own Emission Standard,
but it has been submitted to and approved by the EPA as
a replacement to the Federal Standard in California.
All other States or subdivisions thereof are preempted
from controlling emissions, including through the means
of banning. See the
section 209 of the Federal Clean Air Act.
It is possible, however, for a local government to
require leaf blowers to meet the lowest applicable level
of the phase-in period for exhaust emissions. See
EPA Exhaust Requirements for
phase in levels and effective year.
T hose who use EPA limits to justify that
leaf blowers are much worse for the environment than are
automobiles are just plain wrong. Automobiles cannot
be compared directly to leaf blowers using published
emission limits without first converting to like units.
The EPA measures emissions by "hydrocarbons per mile"
for the automobile and "hydrocarbons per
horsepower-hour" for small off road engines.
Comparisons must be calculated after converting
hydrocarbon emissions to "Total Kilograms per week", for
example. To put this in perspective, think in terms of
households.
The most common use for a leaf blower is to remove
debris from a sidewalk and driveway after mowing the
lawn and trimming the hedges. Most people work in their
yard once a week and they use handheld equipment for
about 1/2 hour. Of that, about 10 minutes is spent
blowing grass clippings. The same household most likely
has a car which is driven to work five days a week. A
typical number of miles per week is 245 miles.
Using this method, a week's worth of automobile
driving for a typical homeowner vs. a week's
worth of leaf blower use is 30 times worse for the
environment. An SUV is 45 times worse than a
leaf blower. You can easily calculate what happens if
two people in the household drive to work separately.
Well, what about the contractor that services 10 or 15
yards per day or 75 households per week? Clearly, 75
households will likely have 75 automobiles and the
comparison remains valid.
What about during the leaf season. Okay, this lasts for
a month or two in the fall. The blower may be used for
an hour, maybe three times over a two month period.
Average the extra usage over the entire year and the
overall impact is minimal.
To see a detailed comparison of Automobiles to Small
Engines prepared by Rob Stegall, Sr. Director Design
Engineering, Echo Inc., click the following link:
Comparison, Cars vs. Blowers . Mr. Stegall's
chart includes string trimmers, hedge clippers and leaf
blowers.
Mr. Stegall is a respected industry expert when it comes
to understanding Emission Standards with over 25 years
experience working with handheld engines. From 1990 to
the present, Rob has worked closely with the California
Air Resources Board (CARB), United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), Environment Canada and the
European Union during the development of Small Off Road
Engine Emission Standards.
A
t one time hydrocarbons, or unburned fuel in the
exhaust, were
considered the evil source of environmental
catastrophe. It caused smog, sometimes called “ozone”.
Automobile manufacturers have done a lot over the years
to reduce this constituent of exhaust gasses. The leaf
blower engine has also been improved. Hydrocarbon
emission has been reduced by 90%.
Diesel engines run clean with respect to unburned
hydrocarbons because these
engines run on excess air. Unburned hydrocarbons are
uncommon, unless the engine is malfunctioning. You can
tell when they are because they will emit a black smoke
from the exhaust.
In terms of hydrocarbons, we all know that automobiles
are running cleaner by magnitudes, but what about
greenhouse gasses? What about CO2?
Have you ever given any thought to what happens to the
fuel that is burned in an automobile, a diesel
semi-truck, or a leaf blower? It oxidizes.
That means oxygen combines with the two elements found
in fuel, namely hydrogen and carbon. The reason
fuel is called a hydrocarbon is because it
consists of hydrogen and carbon. Every ounce of it turns
into an airborne gas. Hydrogen combines with
oxygen to form water (H2O) and carbon
oxidizes to form carbon dioxide (CO2
). CO2 is the greenhouse gas everyone
is talking about.
Aspen, Colorado wanted to know what was causing
greenhouse gasses in their community. Where is the CO2
coming from? They found that 555,660 tons of CO2
were emitted from the transportation sector. That
represents 66% of all the CO2 emissions in
Aspen in 2004. The other major contributor is the power
generation sector.
Those arguing that leaf blowers are worse than
automobiles when it comes to Greenhouse Gasses (CO2
), are totally incorrect. How many cars in your
household are used to drive to work? How many
gallons of gasoline do you burn in a week, one tank full
(18 gallons)? Two tanks (36 gallons)? How
much do you burn in a leaf blower in a week, 10 ounces?
20 ounces? A gallon, by the way, is 128 ounces.
The average automobile is 230 times worse than a leaf
blower when it comes to the emission of greenhouse
gasses.
To say that leaf blowers pollute more than automobiles
is an irresponsible, uninformed and absurd statement.
Ten ounces of fuel through a leaf blower generates about
the same amount of CO2 as that found in
a couple cases of beer.
S ome people feel that one's health might be at risk
because of the leaf blower. Since they move air at
high velocity, doesn't it stand to reason that they
would also generate a lot of dust?
It probably could be hazardous if it were misused,
but to prevent this from happening, Echo has created a
training manual that explains what to avoid when using a
leaf blower. Under normal conditions, very little
dust is raised, especially when used to move leaves or
grass clippings from a yard or driveway.
Mr. Patrick Cunningham of the Arizona Department of
Environmental Quality (ADEQ) agrees that leaf blowers
should not be used on "unstable ground". A state
wide law has been developed that will disallow the use
of leaf blowers on any surface that has been disturbed
from its naturally compacted condition and has not been
stabilized by some form of landscaping, such as
pavement, decorative rock, chemical stabilizer or grass
(See
Arizona Bill SB 1552).
This law will also require
any persons operating leaf blowers
for remuneration to successfully complete, at least once
every three years, training on how to operate a leaf
blower in a manner designed to minimize the generation
of fugitive dust emissions.
Dr. Nancy Steele, of the California Air Resources
Board conducted a yearlong study of leaf blowers for the
California legislature
Report to California
Legislature on Leaf Blowers. She and
her staff concluded that there is no scientific evidence
that leaf blowers are any more detrimental to the
environmental than the alternatives. Under certain
conditions, brooms are likely to lift more dust than
leaf
blowers. They can dislodge caked dirt and generate
dust that leaf blowers would normally leave behind.
T he San Joaquin Valley Air
Pollution Control District commissioned Dennis Fitz of
the University of California at Riverside to study the
potential for leaf blowers to generate dust. His
results show that the amount they generate is
insignificant. Comparing data compiled in the San
Joaquin Valley, daily driving of automobiles generates
100 times more dust than leaf blowers. He also
proved that brooms in fact do generate more dust as was
suggested above.
Daily amounts of dust entrained in
the air within San Joaquin Valley per a Modesto Bee
Article:
D octors have opinions too. They usually
live in exclusive communities and in some cases have
joined forces with anti-leaf blower activists to lend
their title to the cause. It is a powerful tactic.
Understand, however, that they are only offering
their personal opinion. It is not a medical opinion.
They have no proof that their health claims are true.
There are no tests, reports or scientific documents to
back up their opinion.
One activist tells that her doctor friend claims that
leaf blowers cause asthma attacks. I am an asthmatic
and asthma attacks are caused by allergies, irritants
and stress. According to Children's Hospital Boston,
asthma causing irritants include such things
as cigarette smoke, chemicals, weather conditions, colds
and other respiratory illnesses. I find that pollen is
a primary trigger and I can’t hide from pollen. Nowhere
can you find a reputable medical document that blames
asthma on leaf blowers.
Any material that is lifted into
the air by a leaf blower is localized and will not
impact anyone at a reasonable distance away. Air
velocity dissipates rapidly with distance. You can blow
a piece of lint or a mosquito off your hand, but I doubt
if you can blow one off your big toe.
O perators must realize that improper use of a leaf
blower is no longer acceptable or tolerated. If
they are not courteous and thoughtful, someone may try
to take away this useful tool. Some operators are
inconsiderate, but more likely, they are unaware that
they are misusing the leaf blower. The Outdoor
Power Equipment Institute in Alexandria, VA developed a
pamphlet called; Leaf Blowers: A Guide to Safe &
Courteous Use
OPEI Leaf Blower Manual. It offers suggestions
as to when and why older blowers should be replaced by
new quieter versions. It tells how not to generate
dust through proper nozzle positioning and throttle
control. It points out that it is irresponsible to
use blowers on loose dirt, gravel drives and dust
covered surfaces. Guidelines are given concerning
the operation of leaf blowers in residential areas or
when bystanders are present.
A ctivists that work to eliminate the leaf blower from
the landscape contractor's trailer because some of them
are noisy should make eliminating the irritating noise
his or her goal, not the leaf blower or its use. Leaf blowers have
changed in recent years and new designs are no longer
noisy.
Current emissions standards have eliminated
the pollution problem that was once associated with two stroke
engines. Finally, entrained dust particles can be
minimized with proper use techniques, which are
explained in the training manuals made available by Echo
Inc. and the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute.
S
everal
communities have tried to control leaf blowers with some
kind of ordinance. Some have even tried to ban
them. This doesn't
work!
If an ordinance is written, most communities expect
the police to issue citations to violators. Police
argue that they have more important things to do.
What do you think would take precedence for a
policeman, a domestic disturbance or a person using a
leaf blower? Do you really think they would chase
down a leaf blower operator before they would respond to
a traffic accident or a break-in or even a dog barking
at children. All these blower operators are doing
is earning money to feed their families. Besides,
violators of leaf blower bans are hard to catch.
After receiving a complaint, the operator is likely
to be
long gone before the police arrive.
Contractors honoring a ban find that they can no
longer service yards profitably. Alternatives are
too slow and often force them to go out of business.
Some are willing to pay the fine if caught using a
blower since it is less expensive than using a broom or
rake. The Department of Public Services for the
City of Coronado, CA conducted a test comparing brooms
to leaf blowers
Report to Coronado City
Council. To clean the
perimeter sidewalk of a downtown park with a broom took
80 minutes where it took only 6 minutes to clean it with
a blower. If you had a blower and broom on your
trailer, regardless of the local ordinance, what would
you use if you were expected to clean up behind yourself
after cutting the grass.
Menlo Park, CA has rescinded their leaf blower ban
after years of homeowner complaints, police frustration and enforcement expense.
Present code allows the use of blowers that are 65 dB(A)
or less.
T
he operator or landscape contractor must be willing
to voluntarily comply with whatever action is taken to
control leaf blowers. What has worked in the past
is where they are required to use only leaf blowers that
measure 65 dB(A)1 or less. New blowers
are now marked with their sound level, eliminating the
need for enforcement officers to do any sound testing.
Policemen don't even have to respond to a complaint
immediately. They only need approach a
contractor's trailer when they see one in their city and
check their leaf blowers for compliance. Operators
will buy quiet blowers and will use them
voluntarily to avoid a citation under these conditions.
It is also a good idea to require that the operators
have some form of training to alert them to leaf blower
issues and the impact of improper use. Some cities
have gone so far as to require operators to be
certified.
Leaf blower noise in cities mandating quiet blowers
has been reduced to where it no longer is an irritation.
In the mean time, landscapers can perform their work
efficiently using clean and quiet state-of-the-art power
equipment.
See
Model
Ordinance under "Links to Manuals and
Reports" below:
M
r. Will was Vice President of Engineering at Echo
Inc., Lake Zurich, IL from 1994 until his retirement in
2002. In this capacity, he oversaw the development
of the first "Quiet" leaf blower that reduced
leaf blower sound by 75%. As a member of the Hand Held
Products Committee for the Outdoor Power Equipment
Institute (OPEI), he was instrumental in creating the
PowerPoint presentation and pamphlet that was published
by OPEI, entitled "Leaf Blowers, A Guide to Safe and
Courteous Use". He also wrote the Echo leaf blower
operator's training manual.
