Recently there have been a large number of complaints regarding the use of Gasoline Powered Leaf Blowers (GPLBs) in our City. Since people are home much more often these days due to the pandemic, there is no escaping them. People have begun to awaken to the harm they cause, especially in comparison to the benefits they provide. In fact, more than 30 California cities have already banned their use. Menlo Park should be next.

Gas-powered leaf blowers utilize outdated, two-stroke engines that disturb the peace while spewing a host of harmful toxins and pollutants into our neighborhoods. GPLBs create extreme noise and spread airborne pollutants. Their use is incessant, often even on weekends and after 5 pm when they actually are banned.

What’s more, electric leaf blowers are now as powerful and affordable as gas ones, so the continued polluting and disruption of our neighborhoods with gas-powered leaf blowers is not just unhealthy and obnoxious, it is senseless as well.

Gas powered leaf blowers inflict large public pain for a small private gain.

Leaf blower exhaust is worse than a truck’s in many ways. Much of the fuel/oil mixture gets emitted incompletely or totally unburned. It disperses a host of hydrocarbons, fine particulates, toxins, and carcinogens. One leaf blower operating for 1 hour will emit an amount of greenhouse gas greater than that created by driving a 2016 Toyota Camry for about 1,100 miles.

Hydrocarbons, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide mix with sunlight to create ozone, a strong irritant. Continued ozone exposure can cause airway constriction, coughing, sore throat, shortness of breath, emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma. Carbon monoxide exposure can cause both mild and serious effects, from headaches, dizziness, weakness, and nausea to vomiting, disorientation, and worse.

Toxins and carcinogens like benzene, 1,3-butadiene, acetaldehyde, and formaldehyde increase the risk of a range of health problems, including:

 - eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation
 - neurological effects
 - several types of cancer

The health impacts of leaf blowers are even more serious for children, the elderly, people with pre-existing conditions, and of course, those who operate them. We have suffered many continuous days of high heat and smoky air due to climate change. This will not likely improve in the future.  2020 is already substantially worse than 2019 was.

Leaf blowers are also LOUD, and even at a distance, their unique noise raises levels of stress hormones like cortisol, increasing anxiety, cognitive impairment, and the propensity for hostile behavior, elevating blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and compromising the immune system.

Hearing loss is a big risk for anyone who operates a gas-powered leaf blower, but anyone else in an area where leaf blowers are used is also at risk because hearing loss is a function of both noise intensity and its duration.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that a small increase in long-term exposure to PM2.5 (which gas blowers spew out) leads to a large increase in the Covid-19 death rate.

The Council has already been presented with a Memorandum that details all of the above points and includes citations to scientific articles. Moreover, a simple Google search will lead to numerous studies and articles describing the harms of GPLBs.

We the undersigned, ask the Menlo Park City Council to seriously consider a total ban on GPLBs within the limits of our City.

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