Illustration by John Sadler, with apologies to Vermeer. www.johnsadlerillustration.com

• I READ with concern your correspondent suffering toxic dust in their home from leaf-blowers in Belsize Park, (Why am I blown away? Letters, April 30).

The writer mentioned the blowers are used in “a small square” might that mean the culprit is Camden Council?

If so Camden’s parks and open spaces department should be told to stop this on public health grounds, and ward councillors told to push for this ban. Green councillors in Camden should be told and made to act too, it’s unclear if they ever have.

“Leaf”-blowers, used all year round, blowing dust for 10 months when there are no leaves, are the number three most polluting civilian device after aircraft and lorries in terms of emissions alone (never mind the dust clouds blowers cause).

Check out the scientific test proving this on YouTube film: Emissions Test: Car vs. Truck vs. Leaf Blower.

Meanwhile the dust: research in the United States measured ground-dust blown up by a blower at 1.5kg per hour.

It contained: lead, powdered bird and animal faeces, pesticide residues, dead insect parts and, most lethally, ultrafine particles of entrained dust the body can’t exhale once breathed in.

If you’ve got asthma, stay wide of blowers, (and please question why they’re being used at all, as should everyone.)

A movement to ban these machines is gathering strength in the US, and here too. If interested, join BanLeafBlowers on Facebook.

If you’re reading this and thinking “Oh, but they need the machines, to blow the leaves”, what leaves are on the ground in the middle of May?

Is this autumn? No, it isn’t. There are no leaves, so not a single reason why a blower should be in use for at least another five months, if at all.

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