WEBVTT - Why Are Leaf Blowers So Irritating? 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.520 Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:10.639 Lauren Vogel bomb here Ah, the sounds of autumn, the 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:13.840 satisfying crunch of a crisp apple or fallen leaves under 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.279 your feet, or the teeth grinding noise of a leaf 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.279 blower powered by electric or gasoline motors that propel air 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:23.680 out of a nozzle to send leaves and grass cuttings. 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:27.360 Flying leaf blowers are probably the most villainized devices in 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.080 the lawn care universe due to the noise that they admit. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.440 In the mid nineteen seventies, when leaf blowers became ubiquitous 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.680 in the United States, to California, cities adopted early bands 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:39.520 of the equipment, Caramel by the Sea and Beverly Hills 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:42.879 labeled the leaf blowers a noise nuisance and banned their use, 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.000 a move that has been followed by hundreds of other 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.199 cities across the United States to some degree. But what 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.360 is it about leaf blowers that people hate? Is it 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:54.320 the decibels the constancy? The leaf blowers pose real dangers 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:56.480 to the health of users or others who happened to 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.960 be within earshot. Increasingly, the answer appears to be yes 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:03.600 to all of the above. Leaflowers may send leaves and 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.240 long clippings for a ride, but the gusts, which reach 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.360 a hundred and eighty to two hundred and eighty miles 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.440 per hour that's about two hundred nine four hundred and 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:15.760 fifty kilometers per hour, also create a nose clogging swirl 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:20.040 of fungi, spores, herbicides, and microbes. The resulting dust is 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:23.360 so aggravating to people with allergies asthma, bronchitis, and other 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:27.080 respiratory maladies that the American Lung Association recommends staying away 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.120 from leaf flowers altogether. And then there's the air pollution 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.440 operating a commercial leaf blower for one hour, and it's 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.000 as much smog forming pollution as you would if you 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:40.440 drove a recent midsize car, as say Toyota camera from 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.280 Los Angeles to Denver, which is about a one thousand, 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.520 one hundred mile or one tho hundred kilometer trip. That's 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:51.160 because most leaf blowers use two cycle engines. They're lightweight 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.280 and inexpensive, but they require a mixture of gasoline and 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.480 oil to run. Unlike more complex engines, they don't have 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:01.320 separate chambers for fueling lubricants. When operated, the engine wastes 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.400 approximately one third of the combined mixture, releasing carbon monoxide, 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:09.280 nitrous oxide, and hydrocarbons into the air. These three toxins 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.320 are some of the main culprits and the air pollution 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.959 from leaf blowers. Carbon Monoxide helps form smog. Nitrous oxide 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:16.840 is a prime ingredient in acid rain and has been 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:21.000 linked to global warming. Hydrocarbons are cancer causing organic compounds 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:25.800 that also contribute to smog formation. Plus, leaf blowers are noisy. 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.600 How noisy are they When you engage in conversation, that's 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:32.160 a noise level of about sixty deciples, according to the 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.120 Center for Hearing and Communication. If you're strolling on a 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:37.880 sidewalk and a car goes by, that's about seventy deciples. 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.000 A leaf blower, even at fifty ft or fifteen meters away, 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:43.960 can be up to seventy five deciples, and right up 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:46.840 close that jumps well into the nineties. According to the 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.360 World Health Organization, any noise above seventy five decibles risks 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:54.600 causing physical hearing damage. And then there's the mental toll. 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.919 Ms Aphonia is a relatively newly classified condition in which 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:01.600 people are angered by particular sounds like chewing or knuckle cracking. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.240 Although leaf blowers aren't mentioned in the diagnosis parameters, it 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.240 stands to reason that missophonia may be related to people's 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.160 dislike of the machines because they're extra sensitive to sound. 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.480 Preliminary data shows that miss aphones brains may have a 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:18.240 hypersensitive connection between the auditory system and the limbic system, 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.200 which is the part of the brain that's responsible for 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.639 creating emotions. It's so much a part of life or 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.160 misophones that they can be shocked when others don't feel 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.240 or react the same way to certain noises. But being 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:32.280 irritated by leaf blowers doesn't necessarily mean you're asaphone. Erica Walker, 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.880 a doctoral student at Harvard University's chance School of Public Health, 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.960 discovered that it is far less irritating to create a 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.000 sound than it is to hear it. In a survey 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.440 of one thousand fifty residents and more than a dozen 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.800 Boston neighborhoods, Walker found that the majority of respondents said 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.080 they couldn't control or get away from noises like leaf blowers, 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.200 and they believed that no one really cared that it 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.680 annoyed them. What's more, other research has shown that leafblowers 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.920 emit a low frequency noise that penetrates through outer wall 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:02.280 into homes and businesses in a way that some other 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:06.920 noises passing vehicles, for example, do not. However, leaf blowers 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.760 have become an integral part of commercial lawn care. While 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.320 a leaf blower may sound like fingernails across chalkboard to you, 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.200 for the businesses that rely on them for a portion 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:22.440 of their livelihood, it's probably music to the ears. Today's 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:24.760 episode was written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.080 Tristan McNeil. For more on this and tons of other 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:42.080 sensory topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com.