Editors, Vineyard Gazette;

You know that annoying sound all too well — the ear-piercing whirr of a leaf blower coming from your neighbor’s backyard. But those ubiquitous gas-powered leaf blowers are more than just a noisy neighborhood nuisance. Those machines contribute to poor health and emit far more climate-warming pollution than you might expect.

Residents across the Vineyard have been complaining for years that gas leaf blowers are anti-social, anti-health and anti-environment. Now we have the opportunity to do something because bylaws to restrict their use will be presented at the spring town meetings of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury, West Tisbury and Chilmark.

Often called the “Devil’s Hairdryer,” or “Brooms of Satan,” these machines enter our lives with surprising frequency — and at anti-social hours. Because low frequency sound travels farther than high frequency sound, leaf blowers in use hundreds of yards away from your bedroom may disturb your early morning sleep or that quiet time with coffee and conversation. And because lax regulations allow their use as late as 6:30 p.m., their 65-decibel sound (too loud for use without ear mufflers, medical experts say) may disturb your early evening indoor and outdoor activities.

The loud noise that gas leaf blowers and similar two-stroke machines generate isn’t just an anti-social annoyance — it’s a threat to personal and environmental health. Loud noise can lead to hearing loss, tinnitus, hypersensitivity to noise and more.

Moreover, two-stroke engines are inherently inefficient. They spew out hydrocarbon emissions and particulates damaging to health and the environment. How bad are they? For a commercial leaf blower, according to studies done for the California Air Resource Board, one hour of operation emits smog-forming pollution comparable to driving a new light-duty passenger car about 1,100 miles.

And that’s just one machine. Now consider how many landscape business employees still use gasoline leaf blowers on the Vineyard and do the math — the negative impact on climate warming, air quality, and human health is staggering.

While the argument that gas leaf blowers are lighter and more powerful than electric models was valid a few years ago, the technology has greatly improved, and costs are dropping. Although the initial investment is significant, the lower running costs of electric leaf blowers could mean a break-even point within the first two years of operation.

The proposed bylaws limit the period when gas leaf blowers may be used to a more considerate 8 to 5 p.m., seven days a week, with no commercial use allowed on Sundays and none on major holidays. To allow a transition period, gas leaf blowers will be allowed for fall and spring clean-up periods but banned entirely after May 2028. And because what’s good for the goose is also good for the gander, any electric leaf blower that exceeds a decibel rating of 65 db will also be banned.

Because democracy feels shaky this year, let’s be doubly appreciative of our New England institution of town meetings. Let’s hope a record number of us attend and vote to approve leaf blower bylaws in five Vineyard towns. Our Island will then join California, Nantucket, Washington D.C. and some 200 other towns across the country to restrict and eventually ban these polluting, health-harming machines.

Jane Bradbury
Edgartown