A town in Massachusetts is entering the next stage of banning a particularly harmful form of yard equipment, which could be a positive step in the fight against our changing climate.
According to YourArlington, Arlington, Massachusetts, enacted a permanent ban — effective March 15 — on the commercial use of gas-powered leaf blowers. It is the second stage of a plan approved in 2022 to fully ban gas-powered blowers in the town.
The first stage, which was implemented in March 2023, involved a seasonal ban on the blowers by commercial users. Now, landscaping and mowing companies cannot use them at all, while residents can only use them from March 15 through May 31 and from Sept. 15 through Dec. 30. Repeated violations can result in fines of $100 to $200.
The full ban will go into effect for everyone, commercial and residential, in March 2026.
The ban was intended to address two separate concerns. First, it reduces noise issues in the town. Gas leaf blowers are infamously loud — according to Monmouth University, gas blowers produce noise at a level of 80 decibels and can reach noise levels of 100 decibels. Prolonged exposure to anything above 70 decibels can cause hearing loss, and prolonged exposure of any kind to noise over 85 decibels damages your hearing, per the National Council on Aging.
However, the issues with gas blowers extend well beyond just noise pollution. Because of the smaller size of the often two-stroke motors used in conventional leaf blowers, they're not always subject to the same strict emissions and efficiency laws as the larger combustion engines found in cars and trucks. For that reason, they can produce a staggering level of pollution.
According to the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, the engines in gas-powered leaf blowers only burn 60% of the fuel used in them, pumping the rest directly out into the atmosphere. And what is burned still dumps pollutants into the atmosphere.
Citing a 2011 Edmunds report, the Kleinman Center said a 2011 Ford F-150 Raptor driven from Texas to Alaska would produce the same amount of pollution as 30 minutes of gas-powered yard equipment use.
Edmunds estimated that gas-powered yard equipment produced 23 times as much carbon monoxide as a Ford Raptor and 300 times the non-methane hydrocarbons. If that wasn't enough, gas lawn equipment has been linked to various health issues, according to the Kleinman Center, including asthma, cancer, heart disease, and hearing loss.
More recently, the California Air Resources Board estimated that one hour of running a commercial leaf blower created about the same amount of "smog-forming pollution" as a light passenger car for more than 15 hours.
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Yes 💯 As CleanTechnica detailed, some landscapers have opposed similar bans, calling for sympathy about having invested in gas-powered blowers and suggesting that without these, the time required and prices could be higher.
A landscape company director quoted by the publication said that prices would go up in nearby Cambridge, Massachusetts, before a similar ban.
Yet, Cambridge's public works department deputy commissioner countered this, telling the news outlet that the department had increased its use of electric blowers over time and made them part of its routine.
The gradual ban of the equipment in Arlington could give residents and commercial companies time to replace their harmful gas equipment with safer, quieter electric equipment while also prioritizing the health of their community.
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