No Blow Movement Grows

By Shepherd Bliss

Peter and Susan Kendall of Orinda, Northern California, are not your typical political activists. This couple really wants some peace and quiet, so they can be comfortable inside their suburban home and with their backyard chickens, berries and tomatoes.

But wait! While at their home recently a siren-pitched, shrieking scream interrupted that serenity—a leaf blower, which some call a debris blower, since it kicks up far more than leaves. The couple had bought three different kinds of leaf blowers, not to blow leaves, but to demonstrate how much noise and air pollution they make, even the allegedly quieter ones.

The Kendalls founded Quiet Orinda in 2009 in order to educate their neighbors about the multiple hazards of leaf blower pollution and gather support to take action. Over a dozen people, mainly from around California, came to an afternoon summit on June 26 to coordinate efforts against blower hazards. New Yorker magazine flew in a staff writer from Brooklyn to cover the potentially-historic gathering.

Susan Kendall greeted her guests warmly at the door of her neat, modest home and told stories of their hometown efforts. “We’ve been making an impact,” she noted, though she also described resistance. “It seems quieter than before we started,” she added.

Peter Kendall opened the summit convened to found an umbrella group. He spoke of the benefits of sharing resources and expertise. Kendall related their efforts in this town of some 17,500 people and dealing with the “pro-blow crowd.” They have already pulled together a local group, established the website www.quietorinda.com, and created a short film that premiered in May at the California Documentary Film Festival.

The growing movement’s young grandmother, Diane Wolfberg, then spoke. She works with Zero Air Pollution (ZAP) in Los Angeles, which began organizing in l996 and successfully pressured the Los Angeles City Council to pass a partial leaf blower ban in l997.  Wolfberg emphasized that blowers are primarily a health and safety issue and that restrictions are essential for the common good. ZAP’s website is www.zapla.org.

A health scientist with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, David Lighthall, Ph.D., spoke just for himself. He summarized a large body of “empirical evidence” about how hazardous leaf blowers, noting, “The benefits (of blowers) are less than the risks. There is a high ratio of harm to benefit. The dust kicked up has a powerful mix that extends risks, especially to people with compromised immune systems.” He was particularly concerned about the impact of blowers on respiratory diseases such as asthma. Dr. Lighthall called for enforcing the Clean Air Act.

A Feb. 24, 2010, letter circulated at the meeting was from the Executive Officer of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Jack Broadbent, who noted, “The Air District recommends that leaf blowers not be used in local communities to avoid causing difficulty for people with breathing difficulties.”

Psychiatrist Michael Kron, M.D., contended that “leaf blowers are a health problem written large.” He highlighted some of the multiple health consequences of particulate matter kicked up by blowers, especially with respect to how they endanger vulnerable children whose lungs are developing. Workers who use leaf blowers, Dr. Kron contended, are like coal miners who breathe in toxic dust that causes black lung disease.

“One thing I cannot stop thinking about is the injustice perpetrated on the hard-working gardeners,” wrote Peter Kendall after the meeting. “They desperately need the money, and someone needs to advocate for their health. This might be one of our missions - beyond just improving our communities. Keeping these people employed, while giving them safer tools and time to do yard maintenance, is clearly the right thing to do.”

Marin County cities Mill Valley, Belvedere, and Tiburon already restrict leaf blowers. Individuals and groups in Sebastopol, Healdsburg, Sonoma, and Ukiah are among those seeking healthy remedies to their gross pollution.

In my hometown, Sebastopol, citizens complained to various City Council members about their concerns and in November, 2009, now Vice Mayor Guy Wilson suggested a blower ordinance. At numerous Council meetings since then, and at a June 6 Small Town Hall Forum, many residents spoke in favor of a ban. It is currently scheduled to come before the Council in November.

One Sebastopol resident, Jonathan Greenberg, has posted various informative videos and links on leaf blowers at www.tv1.com/vlogs/167/posts/246.

Driving back from Orinda to my Sebastopol farm, I recalled the beginning of a similar group about a decade ago—No Spray. That group managed to prevent the powerful wine industry from spraying homes and land with deadly pesticides against the glassy-winged sharpshooter pest without owner’s permissions.

The early days of the campaign against the hazards of second-hand cigarette smoke also came to mind. Though this idea was originally dismissed, laws eventually were passed against such deadly smoke. No one has the right to blow hazardous smoke into our faces, or hazardous toxins into our common air and our ears.

People certainly have the right to make a fist, but they do not have the right to put it in someone’s face.

The Orinda Summit may have been the birthplace of a national movement that will struggle against one machine, the leaf blower, and probably expand its restriction beyond the dozens of California cities and hundreds of U.S. cities that already restrict its use, dating back to Carmel in l975.

Broom and rake, don’t blow!

Shepherd Bliss has run an organic farm outside Sebastopol, Northern California since l992 and currently also teaches at Sonoma State University. He can be reached at sb3@pon.net.

an addition:

SONOMA WEST TIMES & NEWS > OPINION

Leaf blower debate intensifies

by Shepherd Bliss

Published: Wednesday, July 7, 2010 3:02 PM PDT

Leaf blowers were the talk of the town from the East to the West of Sonoma County this week, especially around Sebastopol and Sonoma.

At the Tuesday Sebastopol City Council meeting a new noise ordinance, which had been discussed at a public hearing the month before, was scheduled to pass. It would restrict all loud noise, including leaf blowers.

At the Wednesday Sonoma City Council meeting a blower ban was on the agenda. On Monday nearly half the front page, above the middle fold, of Santa Rosa’s daily newspaper was an article headlined “Clamor over Leaf Blowers” with a large photo showing a landscaper polluting the air with deadly toxins kicked up by what some call a gas-guzzling debris blower.

The photo documents the goggles, earmuffs, hat, clothing and other protective gear worn by the at-risk operator. Innocent by-standers are seldom equipped with such protection. They suffer negative health consequences while trying to relax in their homes or stroll peacefully without the penetrating, piercing siren of blowers.

“During the countless hours I’ve spent at city parks with my four children,” Lisa Summers recently wrote to Sonoma’s council, “nothing in my mind stands out as a more constant and insidious disruption to the quality of life in the valley than the ever-increasing use of leaf blowers.”

“In light of the ongoing BP oil spill,” Summers added, “I ask you to take a hard look at the frivolous use of gas-powered tools where safe, quiet and environmentally friendly alternatives exist.” She apparently had brooms and rakes in mind.

Sebastopol Vice Mayor Guy Wilson suggested a blower ban to the Council, at the request of residents, in November 2009; it is currently being researched. “Sebastopol should ask itself why we allow these blowers in the first place,” Wilson recently commented. “What reasonable purpose do they serve? It’s like a bad habit that has gone on and on. We need to look at their use in a critical way.”

Another Sebastopol resident has posted informative videos and links on leaf blowers at www.tv1.com/vlogs/167/posts/246. Various Marin County cities already ban blowers, as do dozens of California cities and many U.S. cities, both large and small.

“Noise pollution has a serious impact on health,” contended Georgia Kelly of Sonoma’s Praxis Peace Institute. “Stress, hypertension, hearing loss and heart attacks can be associated with high noise levels. For people who work at home and retired residents, neighborhood noise pollution is especially disturbing.”

A No Blow coalition had its first meeting in Orinda, Contra Costa County, on June 26, at the invitation of the group Quiet Orinda (www.quietorinda.com). Over a dozen persons heard reports from Zero Air Pollution (www.zeroairpollution.com), which successfully persuaded the City of Los Angeles to ban them in l997. A health scientist with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District also presented, followed by a physician. They both spoke about the deadly health consequences of kicking up particulate matter, especially to vulnerable children. Reports on that meeting are available by an Internet search of No Blow.

These experts documented facts similar to those communicated by Summers, “Blowers are associated with a wide range of impacts to human health and the environment, including but not limited to respiratory illness and distress, air pollution from unburned fuel, redistribution of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, dust particles and animal feces into the air we breathe.”

The early days of the campaign against second-hand cigarette smoke came to mind. Though this idea was originally dismissed, laws eventually were passed against such deadly smoke. No one has the right to blow hazardous smoke into our faces, or hazardous toxins into our common air and our ears. People have the right to make a fist, but they do not have the right to put it in someone’s face.

Shepherd Bliss has owned and operated an organic farm in Sebastopol since l992 and currently also teaches at SSU. He can be reached at sb3@pon.net.

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