Gas Leaf Blowers (buy, garden, pollution)

[Trainwreck20]

Our HOA requires that we clean off the sidewalks and streets after we mow. When the weather is really nice, sweeping is fine. When it is 100+, the blower is really nice .

[Spread butter]

i guess you do not have children or elderly family present while you are enjoying your handy machine. Otherwise you should be arrested for abuse. Not only do ALL gas operated blowers emit sound and polution that erodes hearing health, but the fecal matter, chemicals eg fertilizers, ant poisons, dust, and a variety of other organisms become airborn for up to one hour after the BLOWING stops. This particulate matter is usually inhaled by innocent bystanders. I suggest those who get their jollies by chasing leaves find a healthier hobby. Lord knows if the fat kids were made to rake, bend and lift they might shed some pounds.˛˛˛˛˛˛˛˛˛˛˛˛˛˛˛

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by tstone

Cry me a river! Austin is in Texas, not California. Though I'm really starting to wonder with posts like these, what Austin is turning into. I can think of other things that are noisy and leave a ''bad stench'', including humans and animals. So after the agenda is fulfilled and the environment is no cleaner or quieter than before, what are we going to ban next?

Well I do know those leaf blowers can be very loud. I own one, keep it maintained properly, and use it (with earplugs) for about 5 minutes / week. But I've also noticed just about everyone who uses them here has enough common sense to idle the motor down whenever other people are nearby! In Texas we realize that one can live in peace without Big Brother telling us what not to do, as long as we all adhere to simple rules and common courtesy!

But after my road trip to CA, I can only imagine that common courtesy is almost impossible to find in some of the communities there. Hence the existence of these socialist (read: Un-American) laws.

News flash. Most garden landscapers and apartment slumlords don't give a flip that their tenants find the excessive noise and air polution to be disruptive. We need laws to outlaw the lazy gardeners from disrupting the peace and sweep the leaves and grass the way that it used to be done before laziness crept in. Just because you don't like calif is no reason to think that ppl don't find these leaf blowers to be obnoxious and unhealthful.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by Synopsis

I HATE those gas powered leaf blowers. In the summer, you can hardly get any peace and quiet because someone is blowing their crap out into other people's yards.

have you noticed that nearly all of the "gardeners" blow all of the refuse out onto the streets. just where do they think that all of that ends up? the olden days were better when we used to use rakes and brooms to sweep the recently cut grass. Ppl are way too lazy nowadays!

[Spread butter]

sure, it is really nice when one neighbor has the opportunity to make a routine job easy. The problem I encounter is when each home AND BUSINESS DECIDE TO USE THEIR BLOWERS. ONE MAY USE IT AT 1:OO, ANOTHER AT 2:00, THE CHURCH TURNS ONE ON AT THREE...THE OTHER NEIGHBOR AT 5....
AND SO ON. IT IS A HEALTH HAZZARD. STOP BEING SO SELFISH. I HATE INHALING YOUR FETILIZERS/, ROACH DROPPING, POLLEN, DUST, LEAD DUST FROM THE STREET DUE TO BRAKE WEAR IN THE CARS, AND YOUR ANIMALS PAST POOH AND URINE PARTICLES. IT STAYS IN THERE AIR UP TO ONE HOUR AFTER YOU STOP IT. YOUR ELDERLY NEIGHBORS AND THE KIDS DON'T HAVE A SAY EITHER. WHY DON'T YOU HAND OUT BREATHING MASKS AND GOOGLES TO THE FOLKS WHO HAVE TO Walk and live by u before you do this since you are soo concerned with being a good citizen?

[love roses]

Why don't we just stop mother nature too? I'm sure naturally occuring wind stirs up things too. Seems to me like some of the complainers are also people who don't dirty their own hands to do their own yardwork anyway. I'm sure those companies have so many jobs to do a day that they really don't have all the leisure time in the world to rake and sweep every yard. I think if we're going to complain about people being selfish, then it won't accomplish much to limit it to people who use blowers. Nowadays, there's not one person in the world (except for some 3rd world countries) who's not gotten lazy in some way or another. We're lazy as soon as we wake up in the morning. We turn on hot or cold water for our showers from a tap instead of taking a hike to the local stream or well and hauling buckets and boiling it ourselves. We go into our kitchens and flick a switch for lights instead of firing up a lantern, open our refrigerators to get our prepackaged food that we had no hand in processing ourselves, and put it on our gas or electric ranges instead of stoking a fire in our woodburning stoves or outdoor fire pits. Our homes have heating and air conditioning too so we don't always have to light a fireplace or open windows or sit on the front porch in a rocking chair fanning ourselves with a hand held fan and drinking a glass of lemonade full of ice chipped off a cube with an ice pick instead of going to our refrigerator and pushing a lever for premade ice to fall out of a hole or even from an ice tray we filled with water and stuck in there ourselves. We drink bottled water from somewhere instead of, again, drinking from a tin cup of it pumped from a hand pump outside. We use flush toilets instead of going outside to an outhouse and relieving ourselves into a manually dug hole in the ground. This tirade could go on and on.

How about instead of complaining about how awful people are, why not instead just try to set an example? Not everyone will pay attention, of course, but you may end up influencing just a few people. And the ones that don't learn something from you? Why raise your blood pressure over it? You can at least go to bed at night knowing you did your part.

[LoveATX]

I freaking love my electric blower. The edges on my yard look incredible because of this handy dandy machine. Is a leaf blower a big deal really? Go fight for a cause. Like the dude who just buys organic food because its healthier. If you are talking about the environment then you are right. But buying all organic food and driving off in your earthf*cker 2000 is another! Welcome to Austin I say, I totally dig the diversity........

[Lenny Shelton]

The air pollution and noise from leaf blowers lower the standard of living in my neighborhood. I am surprised that Austin permits the use of Gas Powered Leaf Blowers within City Limits. You don’t need to be an expert to realize the danger posed by the particulate matter and exhausts fumes given off are harmful to humans and animals. The noise invades homes, agitates some people worse than others. I become very agitated for some reason and I wish it didn’t bother me so. I am considering moving. I wish that some sort of REGULATION would take place. Everyday I am bothered by the noise and fumes. We never get a break except at night.

[Lenny Shelton]

Mother Nature does not blow at 90 degree angle toward earth surface except during TORNADOES. Winds at 70-140 mile per hour are not “breezes.”
Why don’t you chop down all of your trees so you won’t have any leaves.
thank you


Why don't we just stop mother nature too? I'm sure naturally occuring wind stirs up things too. Seems to me like some of the complainers are also people who don't dirty their own hands to do their own yardwork anyway. I'm sure those companies have so many jobs to do a day that they really don't have all the leisure time in the world to rake and sweep every yard. I think if we're going to complain about people being selfish, then it won't accomplish much to limit it to people who use blowers. Nowadays, there's not one person in the world (except for some 3rd world countries) who's not gotten lazy in some way or another. We're lazy as soon as we wake up in the morning. We turn on hot or cold water for our showers from a tap instead of taking a hike to the local stream or well and hauling buckets and boiling it ourselves. We go into our kitchens and flick a switch for lights instead of firing up a lantern, open our refrigerators to get our prepackaged food that we had no hand in processing ourselves, and put it on our gas or electric ranges instead of stoking a fire in our woodburning stoves or outdoor fire pits. Our homes have heating and air conditioning too so we don't always have to light a fireplace or open windows or sit on the front porch in a rocking chair fanning ourselves with a hand held fan and drinking a glass of lemonade full of ice chipped off a cube with an ice pick instead of going to our refrigerator and pushing a lever for premade ice to fall out of a hole or even from an ice tray we filled with water and stuck in there ourselves. We drink bottled water from somewhere instead of, again, drinking from a tin cup of it pumped from a hand pump outside. We use flush toilets instead of going outside to an outhouse and relieving ourselves into a manually dug hole in the ground. This tirade could go on and on.

How about instead of complaining about how awful people are, why not instead just try to set an example? Not everyone will pay attention, of course, but you may end up influencing just a few people. And the ones that don't learn something from you? Why raise your blood pressure over it? You can at least go to bed at night knowing you did your part.[/quote]

[Charles22]

We have anti-gas powered leaf blower laws in California but that doesn't stop them from being used. Calling the police has no effect, either. The police, if they bother to investigate, will only give a warning. It's a toothless law with no effect other than encouraging homeowners to own an electric blower.

The thing I hate the most is the contract gardeners who show up every week and run their blowers whether there are leaves or not, or in the rain.

I like to use a rake but they're losing their popularity, it seems.