Toronto looking to ban gas-powered leaf blowers to reduce noise and air pollution

A debate about whether or not to ban gas-powered leaf blowers has been quietly raging in Toronto for almost two decades, and now the city seems finally poised to take action.

Chris Keating, chair of the noise and pollution committee for the Deer Park Residents Group, is in favour of a ban, and not just because the machines are noisy.

The 85-year-old gave a deputation at the city's Infrastructure and Environment Committee meeting on Tuesday, referring to a 2021 Toronto Public Health report that described both noise and air pollution from the use of two-stroke engines, like those used in leaf blowers, as a "nuisance." 

"Calling pollution from leaf blowers a nuisance is like calling smog an inconvenience," Keating told the committee. 

The idea of banning equipment with two-stroke engines was first discussed by the city back in 2005, said Coun. Shelley Carroll at the committee meeting. Since then, battery-powered alternatives have become affordable and effective enough to warrant the ban, she said. 

The proposed ban is meant to help combat noise pollution and to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. The motion will be presented to city council on July 16.

Dianne Saxe, the city councillor who brought this most recent item forward, told CBC Toronto that both noise and air pollution are detrimental to the health of city residents. 

"Noise has a real toll on people's health," she said. "We have to tolerate a certain amount of noise in a city with other people but leaf blowers are a totally egregious extra assault."

At Tuesday's meeting, lawyer and Toronto resident April Engleberg made a deputation outlining how gas-powered leaf blowers were "the bane of [her] existence" while suffering from a long-term concussion.

"When there would be one of these … outside my window, I would literally be in my bathroom, in the dark, wearing earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones," she told the committee, adding that many other people experience noise sensitivity issues. 

When it comes to air pollution, Saxe said the long-term health effects may be even worse. 

"Air pollution is cumulative," she said. "And it is very well established that we should be taking a precautionary approach to human health."

A lot of attention has been given to traffic emissions and wildfire smoke, but smaller sources like two-stroke engines are just as dangerous, Saxe said. 

In fact, studies by the California Air Resources Board and Environmental Protection Agency in the United States have found two-stroke engine emissions are significantly more harmful pound-for-pound than emissions from vehicle traffic.