As restrictions spread, neighborhoods are getting quieter—and cleaner.
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. For more than 100 million years, trees have dropped their leaves every fall, creating a protective layer of duff that provides cover for snails, bees, and butterflies. Decaying leaves fertilized the soil and gave nutrients back to the trees. Today, fallen leaves still provide a harvest festival of benefits — unless they get blasted into oblivion with a leaf blower.
“So you go in your house, you close your windows, you shut your doors, and you can still hear it.” A study conducted by Banks and the EPA in 2017 found that commonly used lawn equipment was louder than the World Health Organization’s recommended limit of 55 decibels up to 800 feet away. And every 5-decibel increase in the average daily noise level around people’s home leads to a 34 percent increase in heart attacks and strokes, according to Harvard research in 2020.
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