• I WROTE to the pollution duty office in Camden to complain about the noise from leaf blowers. They are very noisy and they pollute the air with fine dust and exhaust.

Given the lack of response, I went to talk to several gardeners in the neighbourhood and what I discovered upset me.

Apparently the gardeners are not happy to use the leaf blowers as they suffer from hearing loss and long-lasting breathing issues. They use the leaf blowers for hours and hours each day and would lose their jobs if they did not.

One gardener told me: “if I was using a rake it would take me longer and my client would fire me as he wants the job done in one hour”.

Another told me: “I hate it but it’s my job and I need a job.”

In the US some gardeners lost their jobs because of health issues. Many cities are banning the leaf blowers because of the noise complaints. All in all, the situation in the US is such that gardeners have gone back to the broom.

Here gardeners are being asked to pollute the environment, be exposed to unhealthy working conditions, and create a lot of noise in already noisy cities. All of this could be avoided.

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