NewCanaanite.com recently received the following letter. Send letters to editor@newcanaanite.com to have them published here.
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I’ve spoken to a lot of people about gas leaf blowers, and nearly everyone has been outspoken against them. It’s not just the disruption of our daily lives and use of our properties by their horrible noise —there are also serious health concerns associated with their use.
Research from the Children’s Environmental Health Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai warns that gas leaf blowers pose significant health risks to residents, landscaping workers, and especially children. Their concerns center on two issues: air pollution and extreme noise.
Gas leaf blowers use small, inefficient two-stroke engines, with over 30 percent of their fuel released unburned into the air. They spew a toxic mix of pollutants including carbon monoxide, benzene, formaldehyde, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), all linked to health effects such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and premature death.
Running a gas leaf blower for one hour produces emissions comparable to driving a car for roughly 1,100 miles. These machines also contribute to ground-level ozone, which worsens asthma and other respiratory diseases. In addition to engine emissions, the powerful air streams created by leaf blowers—often approaching 200 miles per hour—blast dust, pollen, mold, pesticides, and heavy metals into the air.
Gas leaf blowers produce sound levels exceeding 100 decibels, similar to a jackhammer or jet engine, and can cause permanent hearing loss. Their noise extends far beyond property lines — leaf blowers produce low-frequency sound that travels long distances and penetrates buildings, so their disturbance affects entire neighborhoods. This makes them especially disruptive on larger properties where crews of two to five workers run machines simultaneously and for longer periods of time. Noise like this has been linked to hearing loss, cardiovascular disease, stress, impaired learning, anxiety, and dementia.
Children are particularly vulnerable to all of these harms. Their lungs and nervous systems are still developing, and they inhale more air per pound of body weight than adults, increasing their exposure to pollutants and fine particles stirred up by blowers.
Critics often argue that there are many other sources of noise—cars, trucks, and traffic. But traffic noise is intermittent, while leaf blowers often run continuously as crews move from one property to another throughout the day.
The evidence is clear: gas-powered leaf blowers create disproportionate pollution, excessive noise, and avoidable health risks to all of us.
The proposal before the Town Council to restrict summer use of leaf blowers is a simple solution to a problem that has grown out of control. Opponents are using scare tactics to claim that costs will skyrocket, electric equipment is inferior, and lawns will fall victim to blight. These claims are false, as has been shown in the many communities that have already restricted leaf blowers.
Every day, a battalion of landscaping crews descends on our town—an industry that largely operates without regulation. Thirty-three nearby towns have already implemented limits on gas-powered leaf blowers, and we can learn from their experience.
I urge the Town Council to pass the proposed summer restriction on leaf blowers. Please email the Town Council at TCDistribution@newcanaanct.gov to express your support.
Lars Andersson
The proposed summer ban is nothing more than a symbolic gesture. Do the concerns you raise about health magically disappear in the fall when leaf blower use is more extensive ?
It’s a start! And I’m hoping it may prompt people to buy electric that will then be used in the fall. Thank you, Lars, for your letter.
To be clear, the only municipalities in CT with some type of leaf blower restrictions are Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk and Westport, which are thickly settled and all have many more dense neighborhoods than in New Canaan. Maybe under 1/2 acre zoning, that could make sense but all of New Canaan?
In Greenwich, the additional costs incurred by landscapers buying multiple batteries for electric leaf blowers has been passed onto the residents using their services and they often have to plug in to the electric of the home to complete the tasks. There is no free ride!
It does not eliminate the noise of commercial lawn mowers or any other landscaping equipment.
FYI, The state bill on leaf blowers is dead and it would have placed the costs of that new electric leaf blower equipment purchases by private landscapers onto the “public benefits” charges on our monthly electric bills. Just what we need in CT – even higher electric bills – now the second highest in the nation!
With the power grid capacity already strained we should be looking for ways to use less electricity…. not more.
Over the line in NY state, a number of towns have robust restrictions and they have just as large properties as this town. The arguments via deflections are not sustainable.
I understand the concerns being raised, but the health‑based arguments don’t hold up when the restriction only applies for three months the summer. It’s a false narrative. If respiratory issues are the justification, it’s worth noting that those problems are at their peak in the fall, when leaf blowers are used the most and when the proposed ban wouldn’t apply. A policy framed around health needs to be consistent with when the actual health impacts occur. Otherwise the argument doesn’t hold up.
Thank you Thomas. To follow up on your comment, at last count 33 out of the 47 communities in Westchester have restricted gas leaf blowers. Our neighbors in Pound Ridge have prohibited commercial use from May 15 to October 15 and set time limits for their use year round — stricter than New Canaan is proposing. Bedford has prohibited gas blower use year round except for a six week window in fall. These towns are not thickly settled or dense. They understood that gas leaf blower noise and toxic fumes don’t respect property lines, so property size makes no difference to the harm they cause. If Westchester can protect the health and wellbeing of their citizens like this, surely New Canaan can pass our modest restrictions too!
Out of 169 Connecticut towns, only five have gas leaf blower restrictions. Perhaps it’s this type of regulatory culture that results in Westchester residents paying significantly higher property taxes than those in Fairfield County.
Richard, as a person born and raised in NY state who intentionally chose to live in CT rather than over the state line, respectfully taxation has little bearing on this discussion. NY is a large state where the “downstate” region is an economic engine powering more rural “upstate” areas. It also has a complex web of village/town/county/city/state tax policies which is pretty inefficient and contributes to the overall tax burden. Taxes are minimally impacted if at all by leaf blower regulation, and in fact if we look closer to home in the CT towns that have put restrictions in place this argument is shown to be immaterial.
Thank you, Maria, for providing updated information concerning the State Bill on Leaf Blowers.
I encourage New Canaanite readers to study the proposed draft ordinance on gas-powered leaf blowers before emailing your comments to Town Council:
https://newcanaanite.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/3.2-Draft-GPLB-Ordinance.pdf
Bravo Lars for again stepping up to this extremely important issue.
This is what I submitted to town body to express my environmental & health concerns over gas powered leaf blowers.
I never experienced in 3 countries I lived in Paris Cairo Zurich nor any of the over 30 countries visited that this issue of gas powdered leaf blowers was not taken seriously or not used at all. Why is my hometown so antiquated in this policy & many others to not properly address these serious concerns. Americans attitudes towards many aspects is money things to “elevate” status. Not so in most foreign cultures. Respect & care for all citizens. NC needs to step up do what is right
Great letter, Lars!
Thank you Lars. I agree 100%. I hope that we can do something to preserve our health, our environment, and our peace and quiet.
All great points and reasons to move quickly on a referendum on leaf blowers
Such a timely subject! The NYT had a great piece about this just yesterday. There are so many people doing great work to keep our communities free from harmful noise. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/realestate/neighborhood-noise-danger.html?searchResultPosition=1
Premature Death that’s the worst kind.
I have both gas and electric and thinking
Of getting a riding leaf vacuum.
But seriously if gas blowers were so bad
The the death rate for landscapers crews
would make it one of the worst job to have.
Is it?
A guy working 8 hrs a day= 8,000 miles a
day 6 days a week= 48,000 a week
Perhaps more attention should be paid to the article in the NYT and international press on anti semitism in Fairfield County CT highlighted by the recent Fairfield prep hockey team.
Open your eyes to real issues.
The anti-semitic behavior of Fairfield Prep students targeting NCHS students is sad and horrifying. It goes without saying that antisemitism is unacceptable and as a community we should come together and address it wherever and whenever it occurs. The conversation about the health and environmental impacts of leaf blowers and how to best regulate them for our town is entirely separate and distinct. I’m confident that we can tackle both in a respectful and caring way.
While I support all the environmental concerns mentioned here, the cost differential of equivalent gas vs electric blowers is 3-fold. A Stihl BR600 costs $550 while a Stihl BRA600 with 2 batteries costs $1500. While it may solve the air pollution at source, it does add to the air pollution at the electricity generation assuming at least 50% of your electric power is derived from fossil fuels.
And finally, this is still symptom fixing. The disease is our XL lawns. Most new constructions in town clear cut the lot and replace it with an XL lawn. I would rather see laws to reduce the lawn size to a percentage of the lot and not make every house look like a country club yard.
And for the record, I have a 4-acre lot with a tiny 1/3rd acre lawn. I also own a Silverado EV and will be getting another EV this year.
You are right that the best long-run solution is to move away from our cultural fixation on huge, immaculate lawns — which are biological deserts. Thank you for setting an example with your own property.
Electric leaf blowers are more expensive to buy, but they pay for themselves through much lower fuel and maintenance costs. They last longer too, so they work out to be significantly cheaper than gas over their life. Here is a detailed study on this, focusing on commercial-grade blowers: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2025/envdata/TMY/2025HB-06263-R000317-Kampas,%20Paul,%20Electrical%20Engineer%20retired-Energize%20Acton-Supports-TMY.PDF
Irene, I appreciate that perspective, and I actually speak from a similar place. I grew up in Westchester and lived there for 30 years before moving to New Canaan.. I’m intimately familiar with the ‘downstate’ tax engine and the inefficiencies of the village/county layers you mentioned.
My point regarding the leaf blower regulation isn’t necessarily that it will spike a property tax bill next quarter. It’s more about the cumulative regulatory climate. When you’ve lived in Westchester for decades, you see how these ‘small’ mandates, while often well-intentioned. eventually compound into a higher cost of living for the average homeowner and more friction for local small businesses. Even if the impact is ‘immaterial’ on a town budget, it rarely feels immaterial to the person paying the landscaping bill or the guy trying to run a crew.
When considering this regulation, its more relevant to look at what Connecticut towns are doing. The metric that matters is that only 6 out 169 towns have instituted leaf blower bans.
Memories of leaf raking and burning back in the 60’s. We had ten big maples on our little 1/2 acre. We would spend weeks raking and building leaf forts after throwing our dog or little brother into the middle of the piles. We would then rake them to the curb where we would burn them, much to the displeasure of drivers and the fire dept..
Safety and smoke became a concern as we got older, probably age became the major factor in leaf collection and hired yard crews.
Of the Town..City..Or State doesn’t enforce immigration Laws..Why should I care about some noise complaints?..Laws that aren’t enforced.. aren’t laws at all . Lawless behavior is condoned by State government..My property is a “Sanctuary” for an Echo 770t..Stil 55r..and various other 2 cycle beasts.Good luck stopping me..
The environmental arguments are valid, but for many of us the most immediate issue is simple: noise. On a summer day, it’s nearly impossible to sit outside, have a conversation, or enjoy your property when multiple crews are running gas blowers for hours at a time. That constant noise doesn’t respect property lines—it affects the entire neighborhood.
Nearby towns like Bedford, New York and Pound Ridge, New York have already implemented seasonal or year-round restrictions, and the result is clear: people and businesses adapted, and quality of life improved. This isn’t theoretical—it’s been proven right next door.
This isn’t about eliminating all landscaping noise or creating new costs—it’s about setting reasonable boundaries so residents can actually enjoy their homes during the months that matter most.