For the first two years, gas leaf blowers will be prohibited for nine months out of the year, with the year-round ban starting in January 2028.
  • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    6 days ago

    Wealthy NIMBYs portraying themselves as progressives and burdening the working class folks while doing so. How gross and on point for these people. It goes right along with highway tolling for the poor people commuting to their jobs while the wealthy living in their million dollar waterfront condos pay nothing.

    • mholiv@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      6 days ago

      Do you think people who work for yard maintenance companies buy their own equipment?

      This regulation is good for the heath of working people exposed to leaf blowers. Their hearing and lungs.

      • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        Yes for some considering many of these companies are just a few guys with a truck and some lawn equipment, and even if they don’t, that money is coming out of the same pool as their paycheck and these commercial electric blowers cost thousands of dollars upfront along with thousands more to buy huge Li-ion packs that will be strapped to their backs all day. Additionally, the people affected by this noise are going to be those who live in more affluent neighborhoods as those are the people who can afford to hire people to cut their grass rather than doing it themselves.

        The health aspect is a huge reach and akin to the “it’s for the children” argument we so often hear with other sleazy legislation. Apparently its fine to be outside on a rainy 40 degree day spraying RoundUp for 10 hours but god forbid they make noise for 5 minutes where the neighbors can hear it. It’s fine to be at a construction site using hammers and noisy power tools all day because that generates money for connected real estate developers while lawn care companies do not. I also don’t buy that a tiny little leaf blower in the open air using a few ounces of gas and oil is polluting more than a car driving thousands of miles as their dubious claims would portray.

        This regulation is going to put those working people out of work which is going to be terrible for their and their family’s mental and physical health, but at least Karen sipping her Tuesday morning mimosa won’t be disturbed by those dirty poor people trying to earn a living in the yard next door. Slapping some flimsy appeal to emotion onto this legislation doesn’t make it progressive or good for the working class.

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      leafblowers create a pretty severe amount of pollution. These tiny, high-power engines are extremely inefficient, meaning they create about as much as fine-dust and carbon monoxide pollution as half a dozen big pickups, each. And if you look at things like VOCs, one leafblower is a decent approximation of an entire highway, putting out a hundred times more VOCs than a big truck.