Photo credit: Rodolfo Gaion
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Quiet Communities, Inc., the parent organization of The Quiet Coalition, was started 10 years ago by citizens concerned about the impacts of gas-powered leaf blower noise disrupting a quiet, peaceful community in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Since then, QCI’s founder and president Jamie Banks has become a national expert on leaf blowers, publishing scientific articles about gas-powered leaf blower noise and their air-polluting emissions. Jamie has testified in public hearings about leaf blowers all over the country, and is often mentioned or quoted in national publications like Scientific American and The Washington Post.
If a homeowner or gardener feels compelled to have a lawn and does not want to spend the extra time it takes to rake the lawn, an electric-powered leaf blower is now a rational choice. Even I have to admit that for pets and children to play, lawns are better than a yard covered with native plants. The Quiet Coalition has no commercial relationships with any product manufacturer, and we usually don’t mention specific products or cover articles that do. But I’m writing about CNN’s electric leaf blower recommendations because this is the first one I’ve seen listing actual noise measurements for each leaf blower. These recommendations are for electric leaf blowers for home use only, not for commercial use.
Unfortunately, one has to click on the link for each leaf blower to find the noise measurement. There isn’t a table of the noise measurements, but at least the information is available. I caution that the sound measurements were made with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health sound meter app. That free app was made to measure workplace noise and technically isn’t the correct way to measure machinery noise, but at least it’s a start.
I want to emphasize that leaving leaves to decay on the ground is best for the environment. Decaying leaves provide natural protection for the plants underneath them and eventually become compost. They also provide shelter and food for a wide variety of insects that in turn provide food for birds, small reptiles and amphibians in warmer parts of the country. I know whereof I speak. I’m a gardener. Before I became a noise activist, I served on the board of the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants, Inc. in Sun Valley, California from 2005-2014.
It’s always good to put in native plants wherever you live, too. As Prof. Douglas Tallamy at the University of Delaware has advocated, the best thing to plant in your yard is whatever grew there before humans arrived. He calls this a “homegrown national park.” Whatever your belief system — Charles Darwin, God the Creator, or Mother Nature — that ecosystem supported a complex network of plants, insects, birds, lizards and small mammals. It’s good for the environment if you can replicate this even in a small way.
Still, the best way to remove unwanted leaves is a rake. Leaf blowers disrupt the ground, aerosolize spores, tire waste and dog waste, and scatter or kill insects. But electric leaf blowers, whether powered by a rechargeable battery or a long extension cord, are certainly quieter than gas-powered leaf blowers and don’t emit air pollutants like two-stroke gasoline engines do. A quieter and cleaner world will be a better and healthier world for all.
