Blown away

Has The Bee witten about the relationship of blowers, which loosens fine particles of dust, and coccidiomicosis ?

Don't limit this discussion to Fresno County, please. I'd love to see Madera County do something about this problem!

As can be seen, it is way too easy to vilify leaf-blowers without looking at any background or facts. The problem is when these "calls for action” by our activist newspaper occur without any basis in reality, it potentially ends up hurting very innocent people.

The truth is the EPA has established new standards for two-cycle engines used in leaf blowers that will significantly reduce any air pollution they cause. The following is from the EPA information sheet EPA420-F-03-011, April 2003:

“Nonroad spark-ignition engines below 19 kW (25 horsepower), which usually run on gasoline, are used primarily in lawn and garden equipment. Lawnmowers, string trimmers, leaf blowers, chain saws, commercial turf equipment, and lawn and garden tractors fall within this category, but engines used for marine propulsion, recreational vehicles, or hobby applications (such as remote-control airplanes) are treated separately.
These engines currently contribute about 16 percent of HC emissions and 21 percent of CO emissions from mobile sources nationwide.
Under Phase 1 regulations, new Small SI engines have been meeting standards for HC, CO, and NOx emissions since 1997. The Phase 1 standards have resulted in a 32 percent reduction in HC levels from these engines.
EPA adopted Phase 2 standards for Small SI engines in two separate rulemakings:
• For nonhandheld applications (such as lawn and garden tractors and lawnmowers), the second set of emission standards phases in between 2001 and 2007 and will result in an additional 60 percent reduction in HC and NOx emissions.
• For handheld applications (such as leaf blowers and chainsaws), the second set of emission standards phases in between 2002 and 2007 and will result in an additional 70 percent reduction in HC and NOx emissions.”

Another reality is that if leaf-blowers are not used, then rakes and brooms will be. Last time I used my rake and broom, there certainly was quite a bit of dust raised as well. Currently, the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District is trying to quantify exactly how much dust is emitted into our air by the use of leaf blowers as well as brooms and rakes.

It would seem fairly responsible to wait to see the results of these tests and then compare any marginal differences between the blowers and other sources. At that point we would need to decide if the marginal improvement (if any) is worth the economic impact a ban or restrictions would have on those who depend on these tools for their livelihood.

Since it is probably safe to assume that those who most depend on leaf blowers to help them make a living are on the lower income scale, not approaching this issue in a deliberate manner and responding to emotional “calls for action” could have an unnecessary and devastating impact on their ability to provide for their families.

I'm sorry, Mr. Duncan, but that sounds like a call for inaction to me. Comparing leaf blowers to brooms is just a tad on the silly side, don't you think? At the very least, the City could be reducing its own use of leaf blowers. I live near Vinland Park, and several times a year someone "cleans" the parking lot with a leaf blower, producing huge clouds of dust and debris, thus combining inefficient use of manpower with unnecessary pollution. Why can't the City be part of the solution, at the very least?

Leaf blowers need to be outlawed. Everyone who agrees should show up at city council meetings and at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District meetings en mass until this is accomplished. Anyone else interested in doing so?

As a landscape maintenance professional and business owner with 26 full time employees, I'd like to offer a few comments with regard to the use of leaf blowers.
My company specializes in large commercial properties with large landscaped areas that include miles of sidwalk. In order to prepare for a possible ban on Blowers, I decided to do a little research at a 7-acre apartment complex.
On week one, I timed the normal blowing routine with 2 men operating the machines. It took 2 man hrs. to clean the walks. The next week I went to the hardware store and picked up a half dozen brooms and put a man on each one. It took 12 man hrs. to do the job.
Upon inspection I discovered that the brooms left streaks of dirt on the walk and rather than have to pay any more overtime I had the blowers come through and touch things up.
I projected my costs to use brooms instead of blowers onto the over 250 acres we maintain. My truck fleet would have to be increased from 5 to 8 (3 more trucks on the road). My rates would have to be increased by about 40%.
And I'd have to find at least 15 more documented employees who would be happy working for low wages sweeping sidewalks all day. Perhaps when the Bee goes 100% online and stops using paper I can skirt the labor laws and hire some delivery boys.
I'm with Mr. Duncan all the way.

Maybe we should just have more realistic expectations of how "clean" our sidewalks should be. A broom won't give you that wind-swept look, but it will remove most of the dirt. Frankly, if given a choice, I'd much rather breath cleaner air with less particulate matter than to walk on sidewalks that are free of "dirt streaks."

I could live with the dirt streaks as well, but its not my decision - my customers demand clean sidewalks. We also have law suits from slip and falls to consider.

Two-stroke machines have come a long way and will continue to run cleaner (and quieter)in the near future. The jury is still out on the impact of particulates from lawn equipment.

We spend a lot of time training our employees to use blowers properly. We use the minumum RPM to get the job done. We rake and sweep extremely dirty areas by hand before the blower is used. I think a lot of the complaints about the use of blowers would go away if the people who used them were properly trained.

Mr.
Dunne and Mr. Minick are out of touch with reality. Mr. Peck and Duncan are coming from the perspective that shows reason and not the hypocritcal extremism we get from the Bee and its supporters on this issue. We never get facts or studies on this only hyperbole.

The Bee pollutes Fresno on a daily basis with its operation and unless Mr. Dunne lives in a cave he too may possibly contributing to the problem. The main problems for air quality in Fresno are geography, population and vehicles.

I am a landscape professional, now in the Fresno area, from southern California that dealt with the leaf blower issues and have participated in manufacturers studies and toured their factories.

Believe me, it has been in their best interest to develop a less noisy and polluting product not only with leaf blowers but all landscape equipment. So while the manufacturers and professionals are doing something about this issue all the likes of Minick and Dunne are doing is running their mouths.

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/11838629p-12553220c.html

"The first dust study ever done on leaf blowers portrays them as an insignificant polluter in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the nation's dirtiest air basins.

The $68,000 study released last month says there's so little dust stirred up by leaf blowers that authorities don't need to regulate it. The results are not surprising, said the main researcher, Dennis Fitz of the University of California at Riverside."

End of blog.