Gas-powered leaf blowers are noisy, polluting and harmful to our health. But are bans the best way to go?

What On Earth27:12Here’s the climate dirt on leaf blowers

Mark Nevitt describes the views on his walk or bike to work in Atlanta, Georgia, as "stunningly beautiful" thanks to the city's lush tree canopy. 

But when autumn arrives, not only do the trees shed their leaves, there's another seasonal change the Emory University environmental law professor says he'd rather do without. 

"My beautiful bike ride to Emory's campus was really punctuated and made really unpleasant by gas-powered leaf blowers," Nevitt said in an interview with What on Earth. "That's what led me down this rabbit hole of looking into their climate harms." 

The common gas-powered leaf blower has a two-stroke engine, says Nevitt. That means it cranks out more air pollution than a high-performance pickup truck, according to 2011 data from Edmunds. 

Nevitt said he was outraged when a bill was passed in the Georgia senate last year that seeks to prohibit the state's cities and counties from banning gas-powered leaf blowers. 

"We're seeing a powerful lobby of landscape companies that are actually pushing back against this," said Nevitt. "[They] make quite a lot of claims about the transition costs … as you move from gas to electric." 

In Canada, there's a similar discussion about banning two-stroke gas-powered blowers. In Vancouver, the West End became the first neighbourhood in Canada to ban them in 2004. Last October, Westmount in Montreal also banned the blowers. And Toronto City Council made the decision to transition to zero-emissions outdoor power equipment in July 2023, and will conduct an online survey next month to gather feedback from residents and businesses about how the transition will unfold.

In cities like Calgary however, the ban is still in the proposal stage.  A community group called Project Calgary launched a petition that had more than 2,800 signatures toward its goal of 3,000 at the time this article was published.

With the exception of yard work, Nevitt says that almost all other uses of two-stroke gas engines, including in automobiles, have been phased out. 

Impact on environment and health 

Joe Vipond, an emergency medicine physician in Calgary and past president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, says leaf blowers pose concerns for both the environment and health. 

"The things that come out of the exhaust of a leaf blower is a combination of the combustion products, like the carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and that particulate matter 2.5, which is the real bad pollutant that people know about." 

"If you use it for one hour, the amount of smog-forming air pollution is similar to driving a sedan for 1,750 kilometres," he said, citing data from the California Air Resources Board.

That pollution also has a direct effect on well being.

"The PM2.5 in particular has a direct relationship with mortality," said Vipond. "The more you're exposed to [it] on an annual basis, you're going to have a higher-level of mortality." 

A study by Environment America, U.S. PIRG and Frontier Group in 2023 said that pollution from PM2.5 leads to millions of premature deaths annually worldwide, as well as health issues including cancer, mental health and reproductive problems. 

Both Vipond and Nevitt also say that regulation of these devices is an equity and social justice issue. 

"The people most exposed to the pollutants and to the noise from these machines are the people that work with them every day," said Vipond. "And these are generally low-income people who are the least able to avoid these risks.

The sound produced by leaf blowers that run on gas causes immense harm, says Nevitt, likening the experience to "being next to a jet engine at your local international airport."

"Just being exposed to [it] can [cause] permanent hearing loss," he said. 

'There is a good alternative' 

When it comes to climate work, people often resist change unless a viable alternative is available, says Vipond. However, with the availability of effective electric leaf blowers — both plug-in and battery-powered, "there's really no reason to have gas-powered leaf blowers." 

Sheldon Ridout is the owner of The Silent Gardener, a B.C.- based all-electric landscaping company. 

"We've been in business for about 24 years. When we first started, we didn't use any power equipment at all. It used to be rakes and brooms," said Ridout. "Unfortunately … on larger sites, that gets to be a lot more difficult." 

Around 10 years ago, Ridout began using lithium-battery equipment, and all of the company's tools are now powered by lithium batteries. 

"All those little myths about, 'oh, I'd have to have so many batteries and they only last for 15 minutes, and they're not powerful' … are all 10-year-ago problems," said Ridout. 

Ridout says he sees significant improvements in battery technology each year — longer run times, greater efficiency, and even waterproof features in commercial-grade equipment.

"Technology changes every day. The excuses that were out there, don't really exist. The only thing they have is a lack of vision." 

In fact, Ridout is opposed to municipalities banning gas-powered blowers. 

"It's more the carrot-and-the-stick thing. If you're pounding on someone to do something, you're going to get a lot more resentment," said Ridout. 

Instead, Ridout says that to bring about change, residents need to advocate for it as consumers. 

"It should be more of a resident choice to choose companies that will do it the way they want it."  

"You have to have the people who do the hiring — property management groups, procurement groups … to get companies like mine in there, so that other companies go, 'Wait, I'm losing business to this guy because he's using battery-powered equipment.'" 

"That's your quickest change."