[jacobolus]

One thing you might point out to your father is that his choice of dirty obsolete technology is exposing himself and his workers to dangerous levels of carcinogenic crap all day long, taking years off their lives. Not to mention the hearing loss.

If he wants to keep using them he should at the least be requiring his employees to wear high quality gas masks and hearing protection.

Otherwise, the health effects are comparable to mandating all of his employees take up smoking cigarettes while on the job.

If individual home owners want to take a risk with their lives while doing occasional lawn care that is one thing, but this kind of unnecessary occupational hazard should be strictly banned, and should open employers to criminal/financial liability.

[Brian_K_White]

It's not a choice. This comment is only possible from ignorance. It's fine not to know things. It's not fine not to know things and talk about them, and worse, other people, anyway.

[jacobolus]

If you think landscapers have no choice but to use machinery that is literally poisoning them – because they can’t otherwise compete with all the other landcapers who are willing to poison themselves – then a government ban on these toxic devices becomes even more important! There is a serious social justice problem here: poorly paid, disempowered, often undocumented immigrant landscaping crews are putting their health on the line for the convenience for rich people’s often unnecessary garden maintenance.

But it is certainly a choice not to provide essential safety gear (in this case, high quality respirators and hearing protection) to employees who are doing dangerous work. These 2-stroke motors are particularly difficult to guard the ears against, because they make very loud low-frequency sounds.

The same kind of argument you are making here (via passive aggressive insults rather than direct statement, I might add) could justify pretty much any occupational health hazard. Thankfully regulators and the voting public have over the years regulated some of the worst abuses out of workplaces. Hopefully soon gas-powered leaf blowers will be among those in the dustbin of history.