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THE LOS ANGELES LEAF BLOWER ORDINANCE VIOLATION REPORT PHONE NUMBERS
APPEAR ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS AND OF EACH NEW SECTION PAGE, and in our
Reference Links and Sources.
Welcome to our Award Winning site. Before you navigate to other
sections, we suggest that you first read About This
Site below, and Definitions of Terms
used on this web site.
ZAPLA.ORG MISSION STATEMENT: To encourage compliance with leaf blower
bans and restrictions by providing facts, opinions, and access to sources
and to resources.
This web site is intended as a public service, and is provided by volunteers,
with their own donations of time and money. It is a record of our research
and our experiences, which mimic those of other towns across the nation
that have sought blower bans. It is an alert to, and support for,
those who contemplate bans. It may serve as warning not to compromise
too much.
Los Angeles Residents, if your neighbors cant or wont control
their gardeners after your polite requests, REPORT a blower in progress
to 877-275-5273 and select number 1, Non-Emergency Crimes. This
is a toll-free non-emergency police assistance number. It is more easily
remembered as 877-ASK-LAPD. Please place it around your house, on
telephones, for use when there is not a life-threatening emergency, but
you need to speak to the Police.
Report every occurrance of ongoing VIOLATIONS TO 213-485-3711.
The previous 800 report number was discontinued by the year 2003.
Also report to your local Neighborhood Prosecutor. This program
was established about 2002 to put L.A. residents in closer touch with
the City Attorney's office. Tell the Prosecutor that this is a quality
of life issue for you, which includes health concerns. Invite the Prosecutor
to a Community Council or other neighborhood meeting. Again, see our Reference
Links and Sources.
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WHO WE ARE |
Most Zero Air Pollution (ZAP) members had supported the effort
to ban blowers in Los Angeles for several years before the formation
of ZAP. ZAP is a grassroots group created in 1995 in response
to the formation of a gardeners association that united with
manufacturers and others to challenge a blower ban in Los Angeles.
All ZAP members are volunteers.
With no income or funding, ZAP does not have reason to claim non-profit
status. Either all members chip-in whatever they can towards
a project, or the individual or individuals who conduct a project
pay for its expenses, themselves.
Most of our volunteers are also involved with other volunteer work.
Work on this site has been honored by a Pacific Palisades Community
Council Golden Sparkplug Award, recognition from California State
Senator Sheila Kuehl and Assemblymember Fran Pavley, and Appreciation
from Los Angeles City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski.
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ABOUT OUR INTENT
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ZAP discourages use of any and all leaf blowers.
We acknowledge that newer gas blowers made to meet the California
Tier II Air Resources Board requirements are much less polluting
than older models, and that noise levels on some models have dropped
significantly, as measured by ANSI standards, at a 50 foot distance,
facing different directions and then averaged. However, older,
polluting blowers continue to be used. And, though electric blowers
avoid gasoline emission dangers entirely, they still create fugitive
dust and air velocity noise.
There is no containing fugitive dust and Particulate Matter, once
it is disbursed through the air in such a violent manner by any
of the blowers.
Where blowers are used, or in municipalities that have no restrictions,
we hope the information contained in this site will encourage the
wearing of safety gear, and work habits that keep down the distribution
of irritating and harmful fugitive dust and noise.
Most of the information and suggestions on this web site refer to
blower use in residential zones. Blower use in public spaces,
as long as it stops before 500 feet from a residence, is not banned
in Los Angeles.
We urge viewers to follow-up their interests by going to our table
of links to reference source web sites, and our table to which press
references are linked, to see the source of facts that interest
them and for opposition views. Go to original sources. That is why
we provided links to them. Some of the sites in the reference source
table are not actually cited within our web pages, but may prove
of interest to our visitors.
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ABOUT THE LEAF
BLOWER BAN
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The issue of leaf blower use is ongoing, especially in areas where
it is a year-round issue. There is a need for the public to show
support of blower restrictions and bans. Continue to let your legislators
know that these laws are appreciated. In the future, manufacturers
may lobby legislators to revisit the issue, claiming the law is
outdated due to new technology. To be reconsidered, we believe new
technology must eliminate air pollution from emissions, noise, AND
fugitive dust. Results should measure blower use in the real world,
rather than hypothetical test conditions.
See a sampling of California
Laws and Definitions of Machines. They are not all bans, but
their definitions of a leaf blower are more precise than the Los
Angeles ordinance. The California
State Health and Safety Code Sec. 41700 Regarding Air Contaminants,
and Motor Vehicle Code 27156
Regarding modification of motors may also be helpful.
Los Angeles City Municipal Code 112.04( c )
The following is considered to be the gas-blower ban.
We recommend you see the whole Noise
Regulation code section.
Effective on February 13, 1998.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection (a) above, no gas
powered blower shall be used within 500 feet of a residence at anytime.
Both the user of such a blower as well as the individual who contracted
for the services of the user, if any, shall be subject to the requirements
of and penalty provisions for this ordinance. Violation of
the provisions of this subsection shall be punishable as an infraction
in an amount not to exceed One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), notwithstanding
the graduated fines set forth in L.A.M.C. Section 11.00(m).
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ABOUT THIS SITE
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BOOKMARK: zapla.org contains links to many different web sites.
Please take the time now to bookmark our site in your
web browser. If your attention is drawn to a particular subject
or other website before youve visited all of our pages, wed
like you to be able to return to ZAPLA easily.
VIEWING: This site is best viewed in Internet Explorer 5.5. We
are working on making it problem-free for earlier versions and other
Web Browsers. For our latest version each time you revisit the site,
click on your browser's REFRESH button for each page you have previously
visited. Otherwise, you may be taken to a previously viewed version
which has been saved for you by AOL, for instance, to save time.
Go quickly to list of Links and list of Presentation Materials
available for your use by clicking on those words found just under
the "Search" box in the upper right blue banner of each
section page.
NOTE REGARDING REFERENCES: Reference numbers refer first to the
year of publication, then the month, if known. June 1999 =
99.6. The last number is our own file code. 99.6.1,
is our first article or source noted for June 1999, for instance.
Where a question mark is found in the reference number, we were
not sure of the year or the month, even if we have the source in
hand. To look up a reference, note the number. If it is in
a colored font, click on it to go to the appropriate links page
for a full citation. You may have to use your UP arrow key
once to get to the first line. On this page, you may find other
articles you would like to check out.
When forming an opinion about this issue, take into consideration
the year of publication. Information may be out of date in regard
to newer technology. On the other hand, most machines in use are
older models to which even outdated facts may still apply.
NOTE REGARDING WEBSITE ADDRESSES: Other web sites on our LINKS
page are grouped as to whether our reference to them concerns leaf
blowers, air pollution or noise pollution, and whether they are
an organization or a government entity. A Miscellaneous grouping
holds links regarding a variety of subjects. Once on that
extensive Reference Links page, you may want to look around. Some
groups are listed more than once, referencing different subject
matter that can be found on their web sites.
We have made an effort not to duplicate specific information and
citations found on other leaf blower web sites mentioned herein,
but, due to the focus of all these sites, similar subjects will
be addressed.
NOTE REGARDING PRINTING: More text prints out in the simple File
Print command if you set the print options or print properties right
and left margins at .4. Another way to print from the Internet is
to select the text, and paste it in your word processing program
for printing. That also enables you to change to a smaller font.
E-MAIL ATTACHMENTS: Due to the possibility of spam and computer
virus, we will not open attachements. You may mail information that
you cannot easily include in an email to our Post Office address.
EMAIL HOAX WARNINGS: We will never send email requests to "forward
this to everyone you know immediately." Should new legistation
come up, we might ask those of you who have previously given us
an email address to come to this site for information about how
you can help, and would ask only that you email the same request
to others. No one should blindly follow requests that may lead to
a huge intrusion into the lives of others, and real names and associations
are often mentioned in hoaxes.
Before forwarding any other such requests, check several pieces
of the information the email contains, at one or more of these addresses:
www.cdc.gov/hoax_rumors;
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org
(this has list of other hoax sites); www.datafellows.com/hoaxes
; www.zdnet.com
; www.cancer.org;
http://urbanlegends.about.com
; www.snopes.com.
Some of these sites may have many pop-up ads.
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