Washington, DC, has banned leaf-blowers (the gas-powered variety, anyway). In making this move it joins over 100 other cities that have enacted bans.
“The reasons for the ban are: the obsolescence of the technology, which is orders of magnitude more polluting than other machines and engines now in common use; the public-health danger, above all to hired work crews, of both the emissions and the damagingly loud noise from the gas blowers; and the rapid advent of battery-powered alternatives, which are quieter and dramatically less polluting.”
Good progress! Other reasons to add to the list: the wastefulness of blowing leaves around – waste of labor; also treating leaves as trash instead of a soil-building and plant-feeding resource.