Letters In Support of Limitations on the Use of Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers

The Village of Scarsdale will hold a public hearing on a proposed code change to limit the use of gas powered leaf blowers. Below please find two letters in support of the change:

To the Editor:

Like me, you probably were outside taking a walk or just enjoying the warm, sunny weather last week, only to be assaulted by the deafening roar of the gas-powered leaf blowers favored by many lawn care providers. As we continue to work and study from home this spring, the problems will only intensify.

The gas-powered leaf blowers operate at a dangerous decibel level, blast hurricane-force wind and also heat at plants, grass and trees (you can be sure that this is harmful to them), and blow toxins into the air we breathe. Although the sound levels and airborne particulates are uncomfortable for us, the damage done to the landscapers who work all day long for many months at a time, without adequate protection, is severe. The progressive hearing loss and lung damage to our landscapers is simply unnecessary when other excellent alternatives are available in the form of electric leaf blowers and mulch-mowing.

The Village of Scarsdale is holding a hearing via Zoom on Tuesday, March 23, at 7 p.m., which can be accessed here: The proposal under discussion allows use of the gas-powered leaf blowers through the spring of 2021, as well as from October 1 through the end of the year, Monday-Friday, except for Federal holidays. Starting in January 2022, it adds restrictions for the spring season and for Mondays. Electric-powered leaf blowers are permitted throughout the year.

Members of the Lawn & Turf Association will appear and take the position that the gas-powered leaf blowers are "necessary," and also that not using them will be very costly to Scarsdale residents. This is not true; many landscapers use electric leaf blowers, and their prices are competitive with the other companies. We need your help. Please attend this Zoom hearing, raise your hand, and speak out about why the noise, pollution, and environmentally destructive effects caused by gas-powered leaf blowers are not right for Scarsdale. Many other towns are restricting these devices; Scarsdale needs to join them.

Susan Douglass
Crane Road

59 Crane Road
susanudouglass@gmail.com
914-419-0571

Social and Environmental Justice: Banning Gas Powered Leaf Blowers

As a lifelong physician dedicated to public health and safety, individual wellness, and social and environmental justice, I urge my fellow residents of Scarsdale to please queue up to speak (for all these reasons!) at the Village public hearing on Tuesday, March 23, at 7 p.m. and support the adoption of the proposed resolution to extend our current "summer ban" of gas-powered leaf blowers. It’s a small but urgent step in the right direction.

Gas-powered leaf blowers have highly inefficient two-stroke engines, in which fuel mixes directly with oil and 30% of it fails to undergo complete combustion, thereby propelling toxic fumes comprised of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and carcinogenic contaminants like benzene into our air with deafening 185 mph blasts. Using a gas blower for 30 minutes produces pollutants equal to those generated by a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor traveling 3,900 miles, or as far as from Texas to Alaska. Blowers disperse up to 5 pounds of tiny particulates per hour, matter which is inhaled and easily absorbed in our lungs. Medical societies caution us that a few hours of exposure to these dangerous particulates can cause death and other severe respiratory and cardiovascular harms. These machines are an environmental hazard in our own backyard, one which we can ill-afford in our current climate crisis.

Serving a highly disadvantaged population for the last quarter of a century, and as a physician to many landscapers, I have experienced with them firsthand the damaging health impacts of gas blowers. Their ill-health has been socially determined. Catherine Plume, board member of the Sierra Club, notes: “The use of gas powered leaf blowers is as much as an environmental justice issue as it is an environmental issue.” The extreme noise permanently damages their hearing. Environmental health advocates remind us of studies of landscapers wearing monitoring devices revealing that ultrafine particle levels are 50 times higher around a gas leaf blower than at a clogged intersection at rush hour. Landscape workers put in long days toiling in these toxic emissions and particulate, breathing and inhaling contaminants deep into their lungs due to their physical exertion. I for one don’t have to guess at the consequences of this exposure.

Social determinants of health include factors like socioeconomic status, education, neighborhood and physical environment, employment, and social support networks, as well as access to health care. The origins of these determinants are ugly, suffice it to say they are based in societal disparities and inequities, and structural racism. Addressing social determinants of health is important for improving health and reducing longstanding disparities in health and health care. And it can be done.

We all in Scarsdale now have a chance to be part of this solution rather than the ongoing problem. As a community, we must seek to shape policies and practices in non-health sectors in ways that promote health and health equity. Banning gas powered blowers is an example of an initiative we are ethically obligated to take to help eradicate these social determinants and promote health in our Village landscape workers.

Please join me in queuing up at the zoom mic on March 23, 2021 at 7 p.m. in support of extending the ban on gas powered leaf blowers. It’s a small but important first step in the right direction.

Sincerely,
Darlene LeFrancois Haber M.D.
Nelson Road

It's Noisy Out There - Let you Voices Be Heard About the Harms of Gas Leaf Blowers

The village board and village staff across all departments have been proactively working to protect residents from the preventable harms to our health and wellbeing caused by gas leaf blowers. The board has scheduled a public hearing this coming Tuesday, March 23 at 7:00 pm, when it will be important for residents to offer comments in support of the village’s new proposal to regulate gas leaf blowers. This is a significant advance in Scarsdale policy. Gas leaf blowers are dangerous because they do not blow air – they blow at hurricane speed a combination of dangerous chemicals, some of which are carcinogenic, other pollutants, and particulate matter that pose grave health risks to residents of all ages, landscape workers, pets, and wildlife. Not to mention the harm to human hearing from excessive noise and the deleterious effect on air quality and our environment generally. Village action will also help prevent the proven cardiac, respiratory, and other adverse impacts from gas blowers.

The village board together with the residents who serve on its appointed Conservation Advisory Council were instrumental in advancing this initiative. They are to be congratulated for encouraging the use of safer and quieter electric/battery operated landscape care equipment, which is already required most of the year in Scarsdale.

Please participate on Tuesday, March 23 at 7:00 pm as follows: via online link at https://zoom.us/j/93183703358; or login via Zoom using ID 931 8370 3358; or phone in to the meeting using 1-929-436-2866 and entering the same Meeting ID 931 8370 3358. To participate in the public comment period, if online click “Raise Hand,” or if by phone dial *9.

Madelaine Eppenstein
Autenrieth Road
For more information contact me at meppenstein@eppenstein.com