Photo credit: Peter Dutton licensed under CC BY 2.0
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
This article in the Westerly Sun discusses a presentation The Quiet Coalition’s Jamie Banks, PhD, MSc, made to a group in Weekapaug, Rhode Island, on the environmental impact of gas-powered equipment, its effects on human health, and what can be done about it. Banks also serves as executive director of Quiet Communities, Inc.
In her presentation, Banks explained that commercial gas-powered lawn and garden equipment, like mowers and leaf blowers, not only produce “stressful noise pollution,” but also spew a rich mix of toxic chemicals and project particulate matter into the air.
So what can be done?
Banks suggests that quieter battery-powered landscape care equipment can aid landscape sustainability and prevents auditory damage and disruption of human activities. Says Banks, “battery-powered lawn and garden equipment, including equipment for use by professional landscapers, offers a solution to many of the hazardous side effects of gas-powered machines.”
