OPINION: Gas leaf blowers need to be regulated

It astonishes me that the City of Lake Oswego does not (or at least not yet) have the will to ban gas leaf blowers. Isn’t government’s primary obligation to defend its citizens, including from their own injurious habits? We ban smoking within so many feet of schools and public buildings; yet we leave unregulated carcinogen-belching, toxin-aerosolizing, soil-dessicating, blood-pressure-spiking, cacophonous, discombobulating and deafening gas blowers that are orders of magnitude worse.

I believe gas leaf blowers exist mainly because of status quo bias. Unfortunately, the status quo for most landscaping businesses is poison (herbicides, insecticides, etc.), noise and air pollution (gas blowers), and soil desiccation (blowers). We must change this heavy-handed landscaping paradigm, preferably voluntarily through consumer demand; but by regulation if necessary.

And regulation is necessary, considering the hugely adverse health and environmental impacts and risks of blowers. Gas blower use, further, is inconsistent with diversity, equity and inclusivity principles, as, among other things, paying a landscaper to self-inflict hearing loss and cancer is not loving. Our local governments and representatives in Salem should immediately, comprehensively and proactively ban gas blowers and otherwise stand up for the environment instead of being reactionary, letting citizens and nonprofits do the heavy lifting and taking half-measures. Our environment and its inhabitants, human and non-human, need a much stronger, sympathetic voice from our elected officials; and banning gas blowers should be an easy place to start.

Betsy Wosko

Lake Oswego