Cambridge, Mass. Mulls Leaf Blower Ban

Are leaf blowers about to be gone with the wind in Cambridge, Mass.?
 
City officials established a Leaf Blowers Advisory Committee to determine whether the noisy lawn and garden machines should be muffled for good or least regulated.
 
“People really don’t like the noise, but when you get down to it people are really concerned about the health impacts,” said City Councilor Craig Kelley.
 
Last year, Palo Alto, Calif., banned use of the cacophonous gas-powered deleafing devices in residential zones, joining more than a dozen of California communities that have outlawed high-octane leaf blasting or limited the hours that the turbo garden contraptions can be in use.
 
The yard-clearing conundrum isn’t just about neighborhood racket, leaf blower naysayers said. It’s also about health risks and actually robbing your lawn of the nutrients needed to stay healthy.
 
“Everybody has this idea that it’s important to get the leaves up,” said Karen Carmean, co-chairwoman of the Cambridge Public Planting Committee.
 
“It is the best thing for trees to have leaves on the ground around them because it creates leaf mulch,” she added.
 
The leaf blowers also kick up dust particles that pose a health threat, Carmean and Kelley said.
 
“Particulate matter is more dangerous than we thought it was a few years ago,” Kelley said.
 
But fewer leaf blowers on the block would mean heftier lawn care bills for consumer who would have to pick up the tab for the extra man hours it would take to pick up leaves with traditional rakes.
 
“There are advantages to labor-saving devices even if they are loud,” said Reed Pugh, general manager of Cambridge’s Parterre Garden Services, which does not use leaf blowers to clear yards.
 
Pamela Hart, owner of Pamela Hart Landscape Service in Cambridge, said limiting leaf blower use to 10 minutes at each property would make sense.
 
“We finish off with the blower so that everything looks neat and the final cleanup looks fine,” said Hart, who noted some lawn care services don’t give their employees ear protection adequate for hours of leaf blowing use.