I live in North Idaho and see businesses having team members walk the streets with gas-powered leaf blowers every fall. These leaf blowers, while helpful in clearing leaves from sidewalks, are incredibly detrimental to the environment. Gas-powered leaf blowers kick out nearly 300 times the hydrocarbons of a pickup truck and 93 times the hydrocarbons of a sedan¹. They produce an alarming amount of carbon monoxide and nitrous oxides as well. These machines create so much pollution, that one two-stroke leaf blower that has been used for about 30 minutes of yard work produces the same amount of hydrocarbons of a pickup truck that is driven 3,900 miles straight¹.

Not only do these machines pose a serious threat with the number of emissions they give out, but they also stir up large amounts of dust into the air². "Leaf blowers push 300 to 700 cubic feet of air per minute at 150 to 280 MPH. The resulting dust can contain PM2.5 and PM10 particles including pollen and mold, animal feces, heavy metals, and chemicals from herbicides and pesticides."² Basically, leaf blowers are causing harmful substances to swirl in the air, posing a health hazard to Idahoans via unsafe air quality.

Gas-powered leaf blowers are hazardous on several fronts, they have high levels of emissions and leave a large carbon footprint as well as pollute the air with potentially hazardous materials. On top of those factors, "ozone is created when heat and sunlight react with nitrogen oxides and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that are emitted from combustion engines, including lawn equipment." Cities with heavy use of gas-powered lawn equipment, like "St. Louis [are] among the top-ranked areas for ozone and particle pollution. In fact, according to the Clean Air Partnership, summertime ozone levels have exceeded federal-based health standards every year since the passage of the Clean Air Act. Therefore, small actions, like seeking alternatives to the standard use of lawn equipment, can go a long way in improving regional air quality and human health."³

We have laws restricting emissions in vehicles and yet gas-powered leaf blowers and other lawn equipment have no regulations. There are several ways to go about solving this issue, I will not even begin to pretend to know which option is best. One option could be taxing the sale of gas-powered lawn tools, another would be to offer financial incentives to purchase electric tools and/or offer buybacks or vouchers to exchange gas tools for electric ones. We could require businesses to utilize only electric tools or offer businesses tax breaks for using electric ones. The best solution could be of these options, a mixture of them, either way, I feel it is time to take action on this topic. Idahoans deserve clean and healthy air, restricting or banning the use of gas-powered lawn equipment is an important investment in our future and a great step towards proper stewardship of our environment.

Below are links for all quotes and statistics used above

1: https://www.sierraclub.org/loma-prieta/blog/2017/08/lifestyle-eco-actions-gas-powered-leaf-blowers#:~:text=The%20environmental%20impact%20of%20gas,as%20much%20carbon%20monoxide%20and

2: https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/109428.html#:~:text=Emissions%20from%20gas%20powered%20leaf,the%20amounts%20are%20even%20greater

3. https://sustainability.wustl.edu/rethinking-lawn-equipment/