Calgary Leaf Blower Noise Nuisance: Health Hazard And Environmental Impact, Night And Day

This article summarizes the current issues with the improper use of gas-powered leaf blowers for snow clearing (mainly at night) enabled by a flawed bylaw and the industry lobby in Calgary. This practice has serious adverse effects on people’s health and the local and global environments. Leaf blowers are a pest at any time and should be banned, as done in many civilized places in Canada and the world.

This page is being continuously updated. Stay tuned.

Introduction

This note deals with annoyance and health issues by gas-powered leaf blowers, mainly at night, and with their impact on the environment. Global warming is resulting in the atmosphere carrying increasingly more moisture, which results in more (frequent) precipitation…compare to Calgary’s hail season. In the winter, this means more (frequent) snow clearing…and therefore more (frequent) nuisance. Leaf blowers add their fair share to global warming, which will be discussed below.

Gas-powered leaf blowers emit a loud aggressive noise that is perceived as unpleasant and irritating by most. And they constitute an environmental and health hazard. Since about 2015, they are also being widely used for snow clearing in Calgary – as a perceived shortcut to optimize effectivity and/or company’s profits (depending the way you see it).

It is claimed in this article that the latter is the case: leaf blowers are a habit and not a necessity. They are not even a shortcut in most cases. Nuts don’t need to be cracked with a hammer. Leaf blowers are toxic and a tyranny for many.

Calgary’s Community Standards Bylaw 5M2004 regulates things such as firepits, charity collections,…and noise. But it does not mention the environment or address health. The bylaw was created in 2004 and last amended in 2016.

There has always been a bylaw relaxation, according to which snow removal was allowed night and day within 48 h following a snowfall. When inquiring with the city’s 311 telephone line on 12 January 2018, the advisors had the following information available on their computer screens: “Motorized leaf blower types used to clear snow are NOT included in the 48 h noise relaxation.” “NOT” was capitalized.

And although the bylaw has not changed since, its interpretation has – radically. Calgary’s bylaw department does not even respond to service requests anymore following nightly sleep disturbance through leaf blower noise immediately after/during snowfall.

The City is more interested in going after noisy vehicles (but don’t really pursue this consequently either). Noisy vehicles are a pest, too, but they tend to come and go in an instant.

In contrast, try living across a school where gas-powered leaf blowers scream at you for 20 to 50 mins between 3 am and 5 am, night after night. The City of Calgary thinks this is reasonable…until a councillor or other city official will be personally affected. After all, sleep is a basic health requirement.

In contrast, bylaw officers and police go after leaf blowers at night in the summer. Even a single isolated incident attracted the attention of CTV – and they sent a TV team [here’s their video]. And this one below is mine…this does not sound any different after a snowfall.

The justification for nightly noise harassment and and sleep disturbance is public safety. But this argument is flawed as public safety does not rely on the combination of nightly work AND deployment of unreasonably noisy equipment.

The world was safe in winters before leaf blowers, in Calgary’s case before 2015.

It is really all about a quick buck.

General Problems With Leaf Blowers

The gas-powered leaf blower is a Japanese invention from the 1970s. They arrived in Calgary’s winters only a few years ago – way after the Community Standards Bylaw – and have taken over like the pest.

Questionable Benefits

Leaf blowers mean more income for the snow-clearing companies…as blowing snow is SLOW and superficial. Having crews moving along sidewalks in ultra-slow motion results in more chargeable time.

Leaf blowers also only do a superficial job so there is more need for return visits. Pushing snow along with a snow shovel can be done in fast walking speed, particularly when there is only a film to be removed.

Since the slowest sets the pace not only in math class, Pro Property teams also include a few shovelling workers.

Dedicated snow blowing machines have brushes, they are much more thorough…and they move along much faster. And they are relatively quiet. But they have to be lifted from the vehicle…

Nightly Use: Health Impact through Sleep Disturbance

This is my main reason for writing this article. I can keep it short as it addresses common sense. The problem is that common sense does not appeal to the City of Calgary’s legal department and the companies harassing people at night.

Individual neighbours obviously do not do this to each other for obvious reasons. They have to live side by side.

Noise is unwanted sound. Noise can be harmful to people’s health. The health effect is exacerbated by noise at night as it disturbs people’s sleep: wakes them up, keeps them up for the time of the noise pollution, and may cause difficulties in falling asleep again. In the long run, it may alter people’s sleep rhythm.

In the short run, nightly sleep disturbance results in headaches, fatigue, irritability, and it affects someone’s professional performance and productivity. Apart from that night noise causes annoyance and displeasure.

Do I make this up? No, it comes from the World Health Organization – and simply summarizes common sense.

Do you want to be sleep deprived? Well, then you better don’t live close to a school with an inconsiderate contractor.

While common sense alone suggests that noise will disturb sleep, either by waking the sleeper or by changing the level of sleep, actual measure- ment of the problem is not a simple matter (M.J. Epstein, 2020). Buy the book of this UofC researcher here.

Essential Literature Downloads on Noise Impact:

World Health Organization: Guidelines on Community Noise

World Health Organization: Night Noise Guidelines for Europe

Environmental and Occupational Impact

Leaf Blowers are a potent source of air pollution as a third of the oil-gas mixture is not burned but emitted as an aerosol exhaust. The pollutants (nitrous oxides, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, and particulates) have been linked to cancer, heart disease, and asthma.

This 2011 study found that the amount of NMHC pollutants emitted by a leaf blower operated for 30 minutes is comparable to the amount emitted by a Ford F-150 pickup truck driving from Texas to Alaska.

Dust clouds caused by leaf blowers contain potentially harmful substances such as pesticides, mold, and animal feacal matter that may cause irritation, allergies, and disease.

Noise pollution is also a concern with leaf blowers, as they can emit noise levels above those required to cause hearing loss to both the operator and those nearby. Source: Wikipedia.

Bans

Leaf blowers have been banned in some Californian cities since the mid 1970s as a noise nuisance. Today, 20 Californian cities have banned leaf blowers, and 80 have restricted their use. Washington DC banned leaf blowers in 2018, and the sale of gas-powered lawn equipment will be banned in California from 2024.

Canada has been working hard to become an environmental leader for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to help mitigate climate change. Ontario, Quebec, and BC have all considered or implemented bans on gas leaf blowers and mowers in specific municipalities. 

The Vancouver City Council has also committed to use only electric lawn maintenance tools by 2024. Many provinces have even banned 2-stroke engines in lakes and waterways.  But the worst culprit for both noise and toxic health and safety emissions on land? The leaf blower.

As far back as 2004, the West End of Vancouver has banned gas-powered leaf blowers.  Montreal had also banned leaf blowers in some suburbs back in 2014.

Noise complaints are the main impetus behind the city council voting these out, where the droning of these blowers echoed down city streets between apartment buildings. This year Victoria council followed suit and advocates for electric blowers in their place. 

But what do you expect from a city where the students’ parents idle outside the school with their trucks and large SUVs twice a day?

What to do about It in Calgary?

Use a shovel, broom, or the much quieter dedicated snow blower for snow removal. And ban this pest. CBC reports here.

The Calgary Community Standards Bylaw – In Dubio Pro Offender

General Noise Loopholes

Calgary bylaws should aim to protect the victims. But, in reality, they are – in my experience – written in favour of the offenders, mainly in order to accommodate and legalize unreasonable commercial interests. Business lobby appears to have ruled city councils through the times – after all, who supports the councillors’ election campaigns?

3 Examples of Bylaw Failure

The first is about air conditioner placement – many others had similar experiences – and Bylaw Services had 1500 calls about AC noise that year:

In 2007, a house flipper put an industrial AC unit underneath my bedroom – after covering his walls (6 ft away) with 1 inch of stucco. He ran it between May and October, even at 3C. The unit caused vibrations of my plastic siding…and a constant low-frequency drone sound inside my house. The bylaw officers refused to measure the noise at the property line (30 cm away from the unit) and advised us to move.

According to the bylaw, any measurements are to be taken “at any point of reception”. It is totally up to the officer at which location that is (which means the results are not reproducible…or, in scientific terms, that the precision “reproducibility of results” is zero).

Any decent legal document needs fixed reference points for measurements such as the property line to be meaningful. The Calgary Community Standards Bylaw is not worth the paper it is printed on. Cities in hotter climates such as in Australia have these reference points clearly defined – and it is just a matter of googling for their bylaws.

In another example, some 15 years ago, hockey player Iginla positioned two AC units on his property line, right in front of the neighbour’s Bungalow’s bedroom. Mrs Iginla advised the neighbour to move their bed away from the wall. The neighbour was even on CBC’s Eyeopener – and the City remained tone deaf.

5 years ago, a new neighbour placed their hot tub on the back patio of our attached houses. She is hearing impaired but the constant 2-3 hr low-frequency drone was driving me crazy in my office. We could amicably resolve this by her running the tub’s heater after business hours.

Noise Aspects missing in the Community Standards Bylaw

The community standards bylaw only considers noise quantity (measured in dBA), but not quality. A very-low frequency drone sound will barely yield 30 dBA, but be excavating on most people within a few minutes (compare to a dripping faucet). It is well established in the scientific literature that it is harmful to health.

A masterfully played violin at 65 dBA may sound pleasant over 90 mins, a drill certainly not. The difference between all these is that drone sound (AC, drill) is repetitive and static whereas a voice or violin is variable as it changes frequencies and sound pressure level (“volume”) all the time. The latter is much more tolerable.

Another aspect in bylaws of more mature communities is considering reflective walls. An AC between 2 infills 6 ft apart will emit sound waves that reverberate between the house walls, which amplifies the noise: the famous “gun barrel effect”. Therefore AC placement is important for noise impact.

In summary, whoever has drafted up this bylaw has insufficient understanding of the basic physics – and zero common sense.

Leaf Blower Noise Loopholes

Leaf blowers were explicitly banned at night a few years ago – and the bylaw’s wording has not changed since.

What has changed is the interpretation of the bylaw text when somebody found a loophole in the wording: an ambiguous text passage is interpreted in favour of the offender – out of fear the city could loose the battle in court. Suddenly the banned leaf blowers were allowed again – out of the blue. A true paradox!

As a result of the city’s incompetence, the bylaw’s simplified web version is even more removed from the original bylaw and from reality:

Many people rely on motorized equipment to clear snow, including City crews. Noise restrictions for using such equipment are lifted for 48 hours after a snowfall ends to clear walkways for safety and accessibility. This means anyone is allowed to operate a motorized snow clearing device (including leaf and snow blowers) — at any time of day/night — during that 48-hour window to remove snow and ice. ​Outside of that window, night use is not permitted. For more information, download the Community Standards Bylaw​ and refer to sections 31.1(e) and 31.1(2).

Sidewalks have become walkways and leaf blowers are now snow removal devices. You find the problem with the wording behind this spoiler:

Abuse of Bylaw Relaxation

Snow-clearing/landscaping companies have much experience with police encounters and bylaw officers from their illegal nightly summer work. Since the city is typically business friendly, nothing happens to them. They can be even more relaxed when backed by a bylaw relaxation (anything goes within 48 hrs of a snowfall) or when arguing with safety, particularly when children are involved.

But the bylaw relaxation gives no incentive for these companies to work efficiently, and community or environmentally friendly.

Leaf Blowers and Calgary’s Climate Emergency Declaration

On November 15, 2021, Calgary City Council voted to declare a Climate Emergency. A declaration of Climate Emergency is a resolution passed by a governing body such as a city council. It puts the local government on record in support of emergency action to respond to climate change, and recognizes the pace and scale of action needed.

Calgary subscribed to making climate change a strategic priority and taking action on climate change – while bending all possible bylaws and rules of decency to cater to industry lobby allowing the use of leaf blowers, one of the biggest environmental pests around.

Considering that City Council has refused to understand, let alone taken action on any noise pollution issue that had been on their agenda for the last 20 years, nobody is surprised by their clownery.

This hardly comes as a surprise considering Alberta has always been (one of the) last with most progress in Canada, for example the introduction of seat belts, distracted driving, smoking laws etc.

Open Questions

The above treatment results in the following questions for you, dear reader:

• Do you think it is reasonable having to put up with sleep disturbance by aggressive noise night after night?
• Do you think you should put up with such noise at any time?
• Why do bylaw makers think using motorized garden tools at night is unreasonable in summer but not in winter?
• Why was it possible for the city to interpret their own bylaw first contra and then pro nightly leaf blower relaxation?
• Why should public safety rely on the use of leaf blowers? They are a 1940s invention, but have only been widely used in the last 10 years in Calgary.
• If public safety relies on leaf blowers, how unsafe was the public before?
• Why does City Council not ban leaf blowers simply on the basis of their horrific environmental impact? After all, the city has declared a climate emergency.
• How does city view that feedback loop according to which global warming increases precipitation – and leaf blowers are a major contributor to global warming.

Concluding Remarks

In summary, the City of Calgary adheres to their flawed interpretation of their botched Community Standards Bylaw 5M2004, out of fear of losing court battles against businesses that feel entitled to impose themselves on neighbourhoods. Common sense does not appear to be an argument.

The City’s inaction is in stark contrast to their climate emergency and public and occupational health.

Calgary City Council is advised to revise their bylaws to the standards of common sense and adapt it to their climate emergency declaration and the reality of ever increasing precipitation. Right now, they have no credibility. No city councillor or reasonable person would put up with such ongoing nuisance personally – and should not, according to the bylaw, section 27. (1):

Except as authorized pursuant to this Bylaw, no Person shall make or cause or allow to be made or continued any noise which would disturb or annoy a reasonable person.

But acccording to the city’s bylaw interpretation, such reasonable persons don’t exist. They never have. As former mayor Nenshi would say: “this bylaw is hot garbage”.

The city will have to catch up with the times and get rid of this environmental and occupational pest – period, it is just a matter of time. Get civilized!

Until next time…keep on listening – but to real music!