(C) Virginia Mercury
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Class, race and leaf blowers [1]

['More From Author', 'October', 'Guest Column']

Date: 2023-10-05  

By Dr. Vivian Thomson

Class, race and power ripple through environmental policy in so many ways that I never had trouble finding examples for my University of Virginia students. If I were still teaching at U.Va., I’d lecture about leaf blowers, because their use reflects power relations connected to race, ethnicity and wealth. But those power relations have played out differently in Virginia, where I lived for many years, and in Maryland, my new home state.

Thinking about leaf blowers calls to mind my hilly, forested Charlottesville home, which was a 15-minute bicycle ride from my U. Va. office. In springtime, daffodils, azaleas, dogwoods and native plants like Trillium, bleeding hearts and columbine burst into bloom in rainbow waves that lasted months. When the sultry summer settled in, volunteer milkweed and Joe Pye weed plants by the stream would sustain bees, hummingbirds and butterflies alike. Flocks of robins poked about in thick layers of leaves. A hillside of ferns replaced the lawn that was there when I moved in.

This natural beauty was not coupled with peace and quiet. Two neighbors contracted with lawn care companies for year-round service, even in winter. One neighbor had a postage stamp-sized lawn, but that didn’t stop the company from sending three men to chase around a handful of leaves. When the workers were blasting away, the noise levels on my front porch consistently exceeded the allowable daytime level under Charlottesville’s noise ordinance. That ordinance exempts landscaping work.

As much as I hated that horrendous racket, its worst effects were felt by the people wielding the blowers. Gasoline- powered leaf blowers are a health menace especially for workers, who undertake hard labor, often for the very affluent, that is not well paid. In 2022, 44% of landscaping workers nationally were Hispanic or Latino. Measured noise levels from gasoline-powered leaf blowers reach 90 to 105 decibels at the user’s ears. A two-hour exposure to 90 decibels is enough to cause ear damage, according to the CDC. Many workers may be unaware of these risks, and it’s likely that they cannot exercise choice in the kind of equipment their employer provides.

The low-frequency component of the noise produced by gasoline-powered leaf blowers carries much farther and is perceived as much louder than the noise generated by battery-powered blowers. The routine use of multiple gasoline-powered leaf blowers and other noisy equipment exposes not only workers but large numbers of people in the community to harmful, disruptive levels of noise. Chronic exposure to noise pollution can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairment in children. Repetitive exposure to loud noises causes hearing impairment that has been likened to the brain damage caused by repeated blows to a football player’s head.

Gasoline-powered leaf blowers are also incredibly dirty. They generate wind at speeds ranging from 150 to 280 miles per hour, spewing whatever is on the ground — dirt, excrement, mold, chemicals, particles — into the air. The California Air Resources Board estimates that operating a professional backpack leaf blower for one hour produces as much ozone-forming air pollution as driving a light duty passenger car 1100 miles. As much as 30% of a gasoline-powered leaf blower’s fuel is released unburned into the air. Known human carcinogens are among the pollutants that leaf blowers emit.

Despite this long list of harms, pressuring the Charlottesville City Council to restrict leaf blower use would have been an exercise in frustration. Virginia is a Dillon’s Rule state, which means that local governments hesitate to adopt restrictions unless the General Assembly has passed an enabling law. A proposed law allowing local action on leaf blowers was introduced in 2022, but the bill died.

Virginia’s continued adherence to Dillon’s Rule seems to have originated in part with 20th century racist fears that Virginia’s African Americans might actually exert power at the local level. In 1971, Virginia’s General Assembly blocked a reform effort to grant more power to local governments. Subsequent efforts to overturn Dillon’s Rule have also failed.

I now live in Maryland, where local governments are much freer to initiate action. Our locally elected councilors in Montgomery County have just adopted a ban on the sale and use of gasoline-powered leaf blowers, with plans for a rebate program that will cushion the bans’ financial impacts. Montgomery County might be the most populous jurisdiction in the country to have adopted sale and use bans.

Still, Montgomery County is a follower. Cities that have led the way with local bans include Evanston, IL, Montclair, NJ, Naples, FL, Larchmont, NY, Lexington, MA, Aspen, CO, Miami Beach, FL, Palm Beach, FL, and many cities in California, e.g., Berkeley, Oakland, Ojai, Palm Springs, and Pasadena. Quieter, cleaner battery powered equipment will undoubtedly become better and cheaper to serve consumers in the growing list of localities with bans.

And then there’s Texas. The late, great columnist and native Texan Molly Ivins once said, “The need you have for descriptive words that mean ‘stupid’ in Texas politics is practically infinite.” The city of Dallas was considering gasoline-powered leaf blower restrictions, until the Texas legislature and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott passed a law that prevents any locality from restricting engines based on their fuel source. Gov. Abbott said this was about “protecting energy choice.”

The state of California has opted for health and environmental protection over energy choice. The California Air Resources Board has set a zero-emissions standard for the sale of most new, small, gasoline-powered, “off-road” engines (which includes leaf blowers) starting with model year 2024. Under the Federal Clean Air Act, other states may adopt California’s pollution standards for on-road and off-road engines. California’s standards for automobiles have been picked up in many other states, including Maryland and Virginia. (But not Texas.)

Maryland and Virginia should also adopt California’s zero-emissions requirement for new, small off-road engines. Doing so could help Maryland achieve its greenhouse gas reduction goals and hasten compliance with the Clean Air Act’s ozone standards in both states. Reducing nitrogen oxides air pollution is important to the health of the Chesapeake Bay’s watershed. An estimated 1/3 of the Bay’s nitrogen load comes from the air.

At U. Va., I assigned readings on how to adopt landscaping practices that are friendly to humans and non-humans alike. Leaves provide many benefits; they are not our enemy. But gasoline-powered leaf blowers most certainly are, and in banning them, we strike a blow for environmental justice, public health and environmental protection.

Dr. Vivian Thomson is a retired professor of environmental policy at the University of Virginia, the author of three books and the host of “The Meaning of Green,” a podcast about solving environmental problems.

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