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 gardener’s 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.

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.

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). 

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 you’ve visited all of our pages, we’d 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.