Even before last winter’s snow had fully melted, the roar of leaf blowers began to punctuate the quiet of many towns, renewing noise battles that had only intensified as more people worked from home.
Leaf blowers are not just loud. The small gas-power machines, subject to less-restrictive federal regulation than cars and trucks, release large amounts of pollutants into the air.
But Jamie Banks, the president of Quiet Communities, a nonprofit based in Lincoln, Mass., said it’s not a one-machine issue. “If you just focus on leaf blowers, it trivializes the whole problem. It’s really the very widespread use of all polluting, fossil-fuel-powered equipment that is at issue,” she said. “And, of course, it’s very noisy, too.”
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