The small Cittaslow town of Sonoma became the first city in our county to directly restrict leaf blower use on Jan. 5, joining more than two-dozen California cities that have at least partial bans. Nearby Sebastopol – also a Cittaslow town, each with under 10,000 residents – had indirectly limited their use by way of a new noise ordinance that went into effect in September of last year.
Sonoma’s new rules, passed by the City Council, limit the hours blowers can be used and forbid their use on Sundays and all city-observed holidays, as well as Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, and the day after Thanksgiving. This provides some serenity to the growing number of residents complaining about the blowers and their negative health impacts. They also outlaw the common practice of blowing debris into the streets and onto neighbors’ properties and forbid noise over 70 decibels.
A debris blower ban was officially brought before the Sebastopol City Council in 2009 by then Vice-Mayor Guy Wilson, at the request of various residents. Wilson is now mayor and will bring the issue before the council again March 1. “The Sonoma ordinance is a reference for Sebastopol,” Mayor Wilson said in a telephone interview.
Some activists in Sonoma are concerned that the new rules are not strong enough. “It’s certainly a step in the right direction, but many of us would still like a total ban. When Councilwoman Joanne Sanders called leaf blowers ‘weapons,’ she hit the nail on the head,” Lisa Summers commented. “They’re carried around and they’re pointed and they’re used to exert force to blow things in directions all over the place,” Sanders noted.
Sonoma Mayor Laurie Gallian added, “This issue will be ongoing with educational materials, notice and outreach to commercial and residential stakeholders.”
Santa Monica, for example, restricted the blowers long ago. Last year they strengthened their ban. Carmel was the first to ban the blowers in l975. Los Angeles banned them in l998 and various Marin County towns have also banned them. Over the years the evidence has mounted about how toxic they are to people’s health, especially children, elders, and those with respiratory diseases like asthma.
The growing No Blow Movement had a state-wide gathering hosted in Contra Costa County last year by Quiet Orinda. Various reporters present at that meeting wrote about it, including “The New Yorker’s” Tad Friend’s Oct. 25 article called “Blowback,” which was featured on the cover. He quotes people as describing the machine as “the Devil’s instrument” that ruins “pastoral glories” and “semi-rural character.”
The blowers originated in the 1960s in Japan to disperse pesticides into fields and fruit trees. They continue to scatter pesticides, as well as mold, debris, soot, fecal material, and other hazardous elements. Only they are now used in residential and commercial scenes.
We may be at the start of a campaign similar to that seeking to limit second-hand cigarette smoke. Any benefit blowers may provide are far outweighed by their many costs.
Shepherd Bliss, professor, Sonoma State
Sebastopol
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