Green Matters™
by Crissy Trask
Welcome to my blog where I share almost anything I think will help make greener living undeniable and simple. News, tips, insight and resources served up weekly. I also share my perspectives on others' perspectives and actions. Agree or disagree, I hope you will find them thought-provoking and a starting point for conversation.
Previous Post...Next Post...Information on Reprints...2010 Blog
JUNE 8, 2009 Leaf Blowers: An Environmental Nightmare
Anyone who had any ideas that leaf blowers would be an autumn-only yard tool has by now realized these obnoxious and noxious annoyances are taking over chores previously accomplished by more peaceful and environmentally friends means. Leaf blowers have become an extremely popular tool among landscapers and homeowners for moving any non-rooted plant matter from point A to point B.
From the first moment a leaf blower is started up, it's a trouble maker. Their distinctive whining roar has made people wince and run for auditory shelter. Everyone knows how noisy leaf blowers are, but did you know that they are dangerously noisy? Creating sustained wind power sufficient to push leaves, grass clippings and pine cones off of lawns--up to 200 mph--doesn't happen quietly. Even from 50 feet away, these machines often exceed 65 decibels. But its not just plant matter that succumbs to their wind velocity: Top soil is stripped away and decaying animal waste is disturbed. Between the debris, dirt and fecal matter kicked up by leaf blowers, large clouds of irritating, polluting particulate matter are created which can drift for up to several hundred feet impacting residents several blocks away from where the leaf blower is operating.
As if the most offensive impacts from leaf blowers, noise and dust, aren't bad enough, lets not forget that most of them run on gas using 2 stroke engines from which major pollutants are exhausted unburned into the environment. Gas-powered leaf blowers emit as much smog as 17 cars according the American Lung Association!
Any way you look at it, the gas-powered leaf blower creates one problem after another.
Several cities have been successful in getting leaf blowers banned. If you'd like to initiate a ban in your city, check out the report below for helpful facts about their health and environmental impacts:
2009 BLOG INDEX
Posts by Topic
Air Quality
6/8/09, Leaf Blowers:
An Environmental Nightmare
Cleaning
4/14/09, Don’t
Be So Quick to Blame the Low-Phosphate Detergent
Energy
7/6/09, It’s Summer
Time and the Livin’ is ‘Green’!
4/7/09, Window Films Can Lower Your
Cooling Bills and Your Tax Liability
3/14/09, Bundle Your
Gadgets
Food
10/27/09, Super
Freakonomics Authors Come Down Hard on Local Food
10/22/09, Hey Foodies, What
Are You Feeding Your Pets?
Green Terms
5/26/09, A Closer Look
at the Definition of “Recycled” and Some Other “Re”
Words
Plastic, and other Trash
7/13/09, Will a
Ban on Bottled Water Lad to Bad Beverage Choices?
4/22/09, Bottled Water
Gets Reinvented
3/2/09, Inefficient Packaging
Awards (No. 1)
Perspectives
9/14/09, Gullibility
is Derailing Progress
8/24/09, Check
Your Lifestyle Before Bragging About Recycling
8/19/09, Simple
Solutions Won’t Work Alone: Comprehensive is the True Agent
of Change
2/22/09, The Unhappiest Generation
2/12/09, Inauguration
Attendees Fail to Demonstrate Change
Reduce
8/5/09, Direct
Mail Marketers Want to Force Junk Mail on Us
3/21/09, Better
Yard Sales
1/25/09, Wasting Trees:
Why I Hate Junk Mail
Reuse
10/14/09, Wrapping
with Your Butcher
5/7/09, Craigslist
Buyers are A Flakey Bunch on the Whole
Recycling
6/22/09, Not
Separating Your Recyclables from Your Trash Can Hurt
3/4/09, Recycle Your
Water Filters
Transportation
6/15/09, Avoid
Hot Car Syndrome to Reduce Emissions…and Discomfort
Water
3/27/09,
Water, Water Everywhere, but Not a
Drop…
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